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CONSIDERATIONS 

ON SOME OP 

THE ELEMENTS AND CONDITIONS 



SOCIAL WELFARE 



HUMAN PEOGEESS. 



BEING 



ACADEMIC AND OCCASIONAL DISCOURSES AND OTHER PIECES 



C. S. HENRY, D. D. 



NEW YORK : 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 

443 BEOADWAY. 

LONDON: 16 LITTLE BRITAIN. 

1861. 



S? / A 



H Nfei 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 

D. APPLETON & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 

District of New York. 



TO 

MY FRIEND 



EDWARD BECH 



PREFACE 



The pieces contained in this volume are now 
collected and published at the request of many of 
my friends, particularly among my former pupils, at- 
tendants on my lectures in the New York Univer- 
sity. . The title under which they appear, has been 
given them as being a sufficiently appropriate in- 
dication of their general scope and purport. The 
reader will find some repetitions — naturally enough 
occurring in pieces written at intervals during so 
long a period on topics so nearly related. I have 
not thought it worth while to attempt retrenching 
them, because in most cases it could scarcely be 
done without detriment to the context where they 



VI PREFACE. * 

occur. I have therefore let them stand as they 
were. 

This volume contains some things not quite 
in unison with the tone of popular opinion — par- 
ticularly in relation to the working of our political 
institutions and to our future fortunes as a nation. 
On these topics the utterance of honest censure 
and prophetic warning is not only unacceptable, 
but quite likely to subject one to odium, as want- 
ing in patriotism. But who is the better lover of 
his country, he who lulls the people with soft strains 
of pleasing adulation, and kindles their fancy with 
bright pictures of future greatness and glory ; or 
he who tells them of the rocks and dangers that 
are around them, and of the conditions on which 
their safety depends ? I profess to love my coun- 
try as much as any man that breathes ; but I do 
not think the best way to show it is by perpetual 
eulogies on our superiority as a nation. I desire 
for my country a glorious future ; no man can more 
fervently pray for it ; but I do not think the best 
way to make it sure is to be forever casting brilliant 
horoscopes, without a single suggestion of the pos- 
sibilities of disaster and defeat. At all events 



PREFACE. Vll 

there are enough to flatter our self-love ; let one 
faithful friend be permitted to point out our faults. 
There are enough to cry peace and safety ; let one 
voice of warning be tolerated. If there is any 
thing unsound in the principles and doctrines I 
have propounded ; any thing erroneous in the con- 
ditions of social and political salvation I have laid 
down as indispensable ; any thing false or over- 
drawn in the evils I have sketched ; any thing un- 
real in the dangers I have pointed out, let it be 
shown and no man can be more ready to acknowl- 
edge it than I shall be. 

As to the rest, these discussions touch upon the 
greatest problems of human thought, and embrace 
questions of the highest scientific and practical in- 
terest ; and I cannot but hope they will be re- 
garded as worthy of the candid consideration of 
cultivated and thoughtful persons, whether or not 
they may agree with every opinion advanced. 

Newbtjrgh, on the Hudson, ? 
August, 1860. \ 



CONTENTS 



i. 

The Importance of Elevating the Intellectual Spirit of the 
Nation, 1 

A Discourse delivered before the Phi Sigma Nu Society of the 
University of Vermont, Aug. 3, 1837. 

II. 

The Position and Duties of the Educated Men of the Country, 63 
A Discourse delivered before the Literary Societies of Geneva 
College, Aug. 5, 1840. 

III. 

The True Idea of the University, and its Relation to a complete 

system of Public Instruction, 109 

An Address to the Alumni Association of New York Univer- 
sity, June 28, 1852. 

IY. 

California : the Historical Significance of its Acquisition, . 153 
From the American Review, April, 1849. 

V. 

The Providence of God the Genius of Human History, . .183 
The Churchman, May 20, 1854. 



X CONTENTS. 

PAGK 
VI. 

Young America. — The True Idea of Progress, . . . .199 
New York Daily Times, May 2, 1854. 

VII. 

The Destination of the Human Race, 209 

A Discourse before New Jersey Historical Society, January, 
1855. 

VIII. 

Remarks on Mr. Bancroft's Oration on Human Progress, . . 263 
American Quarterly Church Review, July, 1855. 

IX. 

President Making : Three Letters to the Hon. Josiah Quincy, . 295 

The Century, April, 1859. 

Letter I. Departure from the Constitution. 
Letter II. Evil Consequences. 
Letter III. Are there any Remedies ? 

X. 

Politics and the Pulpit, 815 

XI. 

APPENDIX. 
Corruption, Violence, and Abuse of Suffrage, . . . .401 



THE IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING THE INTELLECTUAL 
SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 



11 While the employment of the mind upon things purely 

intellectual is to most men irksome, whereas the sensitive powers 
by our constant use of them acquire strength — the objects of sense 
are too often counted the chief good. For these things men fight, 
and cheat, and scramble. 

11 Therefore in order to tame mankind and introduce a sense of 
virtue, the best human means is to exercise their reason, to give 
them a glimpse of a world superior to the sensible ; and while they 
take pains to cherish and maintain the animal life, to teach them 
not to neglect the intellectual." 



THE IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING THE IN- 
TELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 



I feel myself honored by the invitation that 
has drawn me here to-day. It is the first time in 
my life that I visit these seats of learning ; but I 
am glad there are other associations than those of 
sight, which banish the sense of strangeness and 
pleasantly awaken the feeling of home. The So- 
ciety at whose request I come is itself a portion of a 
much larger community — the great Brotherhood of 
Scholars — composed of all those who are animated 
by a common love of good letters ; and these Aca- 
demic seats are, if I may be allowed the expression, 
one of the fair Chapters of our Order, where the 
humblest of its members may be sure of a Brother's 
welcome. Festivals like this we hold to-day have a 
natural influence to quicken the scholarly spirit, 
and to brighten the golden chain that unites the dis- 



4 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

ciples of Letters. Laying aside the cares of ordinary 
life, we meet together as scholars, to indulge in the 
free communication of those sympathies that are 
common to the lovers of good learning. The occa- 
sion has naturally suggested to me as a subject of 
remark — the importance of drawing closer together 
the bonds of brotherhood among the lovers of let- 
ters, and of more earnest exertions to exalt the in- 
tellectual spirit of the nation. 

It seems to me there are some peculiar consid- 
erations, connected with the condition of our coun- 
try, that render it exceedingly desirable and im- 
portant, no less for the welfare of the country gen- 
erally, than for the more immediate interests of 
truth and learning, that a loftier tone, and a live- 
lier sympathy, should pervade and connect the 
whole body of those who either are themselves en- 
gaged in the higher pursuits of science and letters, 
or appreciate the worth and value of such pursuits. 
In this country, while intellectual activity, in its 
higher departments, is, on the one hand, not fa- 
vored by some causes that exist elsewhere, it is, on 
the other hand, positively repressed by many un- 
friendly influences, that are either peculiar to our 
country, or work in a peculiar degree. It seems 
needful, then, to cast about for something to sup- 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 5 

ply what is wanting, and to counteract what is in- 
jurious ; — to give a quickened impulse, a higher 
flight, and a wider reach to intellectual exertion ; 
— and to work such a change in the state of opin- 
ion and direction of the public resources, as shall 
secure to the loftier pursuits of truth, beauty, and 
letters, those fostering influences of which they are 
now so sadly destitute. 

Whether or not these results, in any sufficient 
degree, can be fairly hoped for, they are still ob- 
jects attractive to the imagination and to the wish- 
es ; and at all events we shall find it interesting to 
survey the present state of cultivation in our coun- 
try, and the influences that affect it. 

We have among us no learned order of men. 
I use the expression for its convenient brevity, not 
meaning by it merely those who are devoted to the 
pursuits of learning in the strict sense of the word, 
but also all those who give their lives to intellec- 
tual inquiry and production in any of the higher 
departments of science and letters. We have a 
most respectable body of educated men, some of 
them engaged in the applications of science to the 
arts of life, but most of them exercising the differ- 
ent public professions. Whether or not they are 



6 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

all adequately appreciated and rewarded, still we 
have such a class, employed in working with, com- 
bining and applying — in explaining, communica- 
ting, and diffusing, the knowledge already possessed. 
But in addition to these we want an order of men 
devoted to original inquiry and production, who 
without reference to the more palpable uses of 
knowledge shall pursue truth for its own sake. 
We need a class of men whose lives and powers 
shall be exclusively given to exploring the higher 
spheres of knowledge, opening new sources of truth 
and beauty, increasing the amount and extending 
the domain of science. We need an order of men 
who may be free to leave the mists and the vapors 
that settle upon the low grounds of the earth, and 
getting themselves up into the mountain-tops, may 
dwell there in a serene and lofty seclusion alike 
from the goading of life's cares and from the fe- 
verish stir and strife of its coarse and beggarly ele- 
ments, and in the clear air beholding with pure 
and tranquil heart "the bright countenance of 
Truth/' may catch and reflect its divine spirit to 
all times. In short, we want an order of men, sur- 
rounded with all needful appliances, and left with 
a free mind to follow the impulses of their nature 
in the highest spheres of science and letters. 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 7 

Such an order of men is a component part of 
every sound and perfect body politic. It is indis- 
pensable to its highest welfare. u Man liveth not 
by bread alone/' any more as a nation than as an 
individual. 

TVe live by Admiration, Hope, and Love, 
And even as these are well and wisely fixed, 
In dignity of being we ascend. 

Wordsworth. 

National well-being consists in the development 
of the proper humanity of a nation — in the culti- 
vation and exercise of the reason and moral nature, 
and in the subordination to these of all the lower 
principles. It is found in the wisdom, the intel- 
lectual elevation, and the virtuous energy of a peo- 
ple ; and of these, the light of pure and lofty sci- 
ence is the quickening impulse and the genial nu- 
triment. All pure and elevated truth is in itself 
good, and it does good. It is of God, and it leads 
to God again. Without its noble inspiration we 
may indeed serve the turn of this world's lowest 
uses ; — we can gain money, grow fat and die ; — 
but we are not fit for the better ends even of this 
world. " He/' says Bishop Berkeley, " who hath 
not meditated much upon God, the human soul, 
and its chief good, may possibly make a shrewd 



8 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

and thriving earth-worm, but he will indubitably 
make a blundering patriot and a sorry statesman." 
As the well-being of individuals is in proportion to 
the culture and right exertion of those rational and 
moral faculties which mark and distinguish our hu- 
manity, so the welfare of a nation requires that the 
select number of those who are endowed with pre- 
eminent gifts of intellectual power, should be left 
free, with all observance and respect attending 
them, to follow those inward promptings of their 
nature which mark their true vocation — their mis- 
sion on the earth — the promotion of God's glory 
by seeking and exploring the highest sources of 
truth and beauty, for the honor and instruction of 
their country. Such minds should, in the noble 
language of Milton, " have liberty in the spacious 
circuits of their musing, to propose to themselves 
whatever is of highest hope and hardest attempt- 
ing" — whether in " beholding the bright counte- 
nance of Truth, in the quiet and still air of de- 
lightful studies," or as "poets soaring high in the 
region of their fancies, with their garlands and 
singing robes about them." " These abilities," he 
goes on, " wheresoever they be found, are the in- 
spired gifts of God, rarely bestowed, but yet to 
some in every nation, and are of power, beside the 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 9 

office of a pulpit, to imbreed and cherish in a great 
people the seeds of virtue and public civility, to 
allay the perturbations of the mind, and set the 
affections in a right tune." 

A learned order is, moreover, one of the conser- 
vative powers of a nation, necessary in order to check 
the undue predominance of the more gross and ma- 
terial elements. In this country it is peculiarly ne- 
cessary to counteract the overgrowth and dangerous 
tendencies of the commercial and political spirit. 
The overgrowth of these influences in other coun- 
tries is checked not only by venerable institutions 
both of religion and of learning, but also by ancient 
dignities, more imposing forms of government, and^ 
various other causes which have no place in this 
country. The only counteracting influences that 
can be brought to bear in this country against the 
undue love of wealth and politics, are Eeligion and 
Letters ; and religion, left as it is to take care of 
itself, will be entirely inadequate, unless the intel- 
lectual spirit of the nation be elevated by high and 
pure letters. 

There is no theme so much a favorite amongst 
us as the glorious career and magnificent destiny of 
our country. Our presses teem with gorgeous vis- 
ions of the future. It is the subject of popular dec- 
1* 



, 



c 



10 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

lamation through the length and breadth of the 
land. The public mind has been too much dazzled 
by these brilliant pictures. It is comparatively a 
small thing that we have drawn upon ourselves the 
sneers of other nations, who from a distance are 
more camly watching the progress of our history. 
Nor is it the chief evil that comes of indulging these 
self-pleasing fancies, that they foster an overween- 
ing national pride. The greatest danger is, that we 
shall fall into the habit of looking upon it as a set- 
tled and inevitable thing that we are to become not 
only the largest and richest, but the freest, wisest, 
and happiest nation on the globe, while we entirely 
forget the conditions on which, after all, our national 
prosperity is suspended. In the confident tone of 
these predictions, it seems to be forgotten that the 
true interests and permanent welfare of our nation 
can be secured only by maintaining ourselves in 
harmony with the universal and invariable laws of 
the moral world. It seems to be forgotten that 
there are causes, in active operation at this moment, 
quite as powerful to work our downfall as to secure 
our greatness. 

I have alluded to the dangerous predominance 
of two elements in our country. 

The one is the love of money. Our national 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIKIT OF THE NATION. 11 

character is eminently distinguished, and in the 
view of other nations disgraced, by this trait. The 
whole mass of society, from the top to the bottom, 
is heaving with the restless struggle for gain. It 
takes, indeed, in many of its manifestations, a cast 
of grandeur, from the energy it calls forth, and the 
vastness of the schemes it employs itself upon. 
The boundless physical resources of the country are 
unfolding with unparalleled rapidity. The din and 
bustle of internal improvement is ringing from one 
end of the land to the other. The country is grow- 
ing rich beyond all computation ; and almost every 
man in the country is hastening to be rich. Now 
it is not necessary to quarrel with this development 
of the physical resources of our land. But it is ne- 
cessary to be aware of the corresponding dangers it 
brings, and to guard against them. It is needful to 
feel that national wealth is by no means necessarily 
national well-being ; that merely to be rich no more 
makes the proper well-being of a nation, than of an 
individual. On the contrary, the natural tendency 
of excessive wealth is to luxury, and private and 
public corruption. It contains the germ of every 
evil, and, unless checked and sanctified by higher / 
and happier influences, is sure to degrade a nation I 
— to blast its prosperity, and work its ruin. This 



12 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

is a titlth, of which all history is an impressive de- 
monstration. It is not necessary to quarrel with 
the natural desire of acquisition ; but it is necessary 
to guard against its excess ; and to keep it subordinate 
to its proper ends. In this country it is excessive. 
It is restless, insatiable, boundless — unhallowed and 
unredeemed by better influences, by a superior and 
pervading respect and love for higher and nobler ob- 
jects. For along with this increase of wealth has 
come a prodigious growth of luxury — an infinite 
multiplication of the means and refinements of phys- 
ical enjoyment ; and we are hurrying on with pro- 
digious strides to a state of excessive civilization 
without due cultivation — of luxurious indulgence 
and the refinements of pleasure, without a propor- 
tionate growth of intellectual and moral culture, 
without a lively and respectful regard for the less 
material and less vulgar interests of life. 

In such a state of things, the morals of a nation, 
and the tone ol society, cannot but be injuriously 
affected. Unhappily these evils are but too visible. 
The use of a single word sometimes tells much in 
regard to the moral tone of a nation. Is not a sad 
slate of moral feeling betrayed in a country where 

'1th — that good old-English word, designed to 
express the total sum of the elements of well-being, 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 13 

including all that relates to man's higher nature 
and wants — has come to mean nothing but money ; 
and where worth is used to tell how much a man 
has ? Yet so it is. Mr. Wilkins hath a hundred 
thousand dollars, and he is worth five times as much 
as Mr. Johnson, who hath but twenty thousand, 
while Mr. Thompson hath none, and is ivorth noth- 
ing. Throughout the country the great majority 
of the mass of the people have a profound reverence 
for nothing but money. Public office is a partial 
exception. And why should it be otherwise ? They 
see nothing else so powerful. Kiches not only se- 
cure the material ends of life — its pleasures and luxu- 
ries ; but they open the way to all the less material 
objects of man's desire — respect and observance, 
authority and influence. 

In the mean time the tone of society is de- 
based. 

The luxury of mere riches is always a vulgar 
luxury. It is external, and devoid of good taste. 
It always goeth about feeling its purse. It counteth 
the fitness and propriety of its appointments by the 
sum they cost. It calleth your attention to its glit- 
tering equipage, and saith it ought to be of the first 
style, for it cost the highest price. It receiveth you 
to its grand saloons, and wisheth you to mark its 



14 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

furniture. It inviteth you to its table, and biddeth 
you note the richness of its plate, and telleth you 
the price of its wines. 

The fashion of mere riches is also a vulgar fash- 
ion. The butterfly insignificance of its life is not 
even adorned by the graceful fluttering of its golden 
wings. It is quite possible to have the extrava- 
gance and frivolity of fashionable life, without the 
ease and grace, the charms of wit and spirit, and 
the elegance of mind and manners, that in other 
countries often adorn its real nothingness, or cover 
up the coarse workings of jealousy and pretension. 

Such must always be the tendency of things 
where the commercial spirit acquires an undue pre- 
dominance — where the excessive and exclusive re- 
spect for money is not repressed by appropriate 
counter-checks. In some countries these checks to 
the overgrowth of the commercial spirit are sought 
for in venerable institutions of religion and letters, 
in habits of respect for established rank, and above 
all by throwing a considerable portion of the proper- 
ty into such a train of transmission, as that it be- 
comes the appendage and ornament of something 
that appeals to the higher sentiments, something 
that is held in greater respect than mere riches, and 
with the possession of which is connected high and 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 15 

dignified trusts — a high education, and the culture 
and habit of all lofty and generous sentiments. 
This is unquestionably the idea lying at the ground 
of the English aristocracy, in the theory of the Eng- 
lish constitution. Hence inalienable estates, belong- 
ing not to the man, but to the dignity ; where the 
wealth is designed to be only the means of sustain- 
ing and adorning the dignity — of fulfilling its proper 
trusts — and of upholding those high interests of the 
country, of which the possessor of the dignity is but 
the representative ; and where habits of education 
from generation to generation are designed to teach 
and impress the value of many other things above 
mere wealth, and to connect with the possession 
and use of riches, honorable sentiments, liberal cul- 
ture, and the disposition to respect and promote the 
cultivation of high science and letters, and all the 
more spiritual elements of social well-being. And 
strong as are our prejudices in this country, it may at 
least be questioned, whether a fair estimate of the 
evils on both sides would not show that such an 
aristocracy is in many respects preferable to that 
which otherwise will and must predominate — the 
aristocracy of new riches, where the elements of so- 
ciety are in perpetual fluctuation, where the coarse 
pretensions of lucky speculators, and the vulgar 



16 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

struggles of all to get up, leave little room for the 
feeling of repose and respect.*' 15 

The other principal element of danger to our 
country is the strife of party politics. The struc- 
ture of our government, with all its advantages, is 
attended with some peculiar perils. We are apt, 
however, to be deluded by an extravagant opinion 
of the efficacy of our form of government in se- 
curing the welfare of the nation. But there is no 
charm in a form of government. Government is 
but the condition under which the destiny of a peo- 
ple is wrought out for good or for evil by the peo- 

* I was struck with the following passage in a recent well-writ- 
ten and agreeable book entitled " Sketches of Switzerland." Speak- 
ing of the society at Paris, the writer had introduced an anecdote 
illustrating the simplicity of manners that characterized the cele- 
brated Duke de Valmy ; he then adds, " But I could fill volumes 
with anecdotes of a similar nature; for in these countries, in which 
men of illustrious deeds abound, one is never disturbed in society 
by the fussy pretension and swagger that is apt to mark the pres- 
ence of a lucky speculator in the stocks. 

" I have already told you how little sensation is produced in 
Paris by the presence of a celebrity, though in no part of the 
world is more delicate respect paid to those who have earned re- 
nown, whether in letters, arts, or arms. Like causes, however, no- 
toriously produce like effects; and I think, under the new regime, 
which is purely a money-power system, directed by a mind whose 
ambition is wealth, that one really meets here more of that swag- 
ger of stocks and lucky speculations in the world, than was for- 
merly the case. Society is decidedly less graceful, more care-worn, 
and of a worse tone to-day, than it was previously to the revolution 
of 1830." 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 17 

pie themselves. The freest government is the one 
that is exposed to the greatest perils ; if it does 
not work well, it must work worse than others. 
Onr form of government presupposes that the ca- 
pacity of self-government is commensurate with 
the right ; consequently it is fit for us no longer 
than we are fit for it. Universal suffrage in the 
hands of an unenlightened and corrupt people is 
like deadly weapons in the hands of a madman. 
You can give the people the right of ruling only 
on supposition that they will rule well. But it is 
not a thing to be taken for granted that a majority 
can do no wrong or foolish things. The doings of 
a majority will never be a whit wiser or better than 
the wisdom and virtue of the individuals that com- 
pose it. The great question then obviously is : 
Whether the people at large are so enlightened and 
virtuous, that the present will of a majority, will, 
in the long run ; always be an expression of what is 
wisest and best for the nation, — or at least, a truer 
expression of it than can be had in any other way ? 
It is no acceptable doctrine now-a-days to deny 
this. But taking human nature as it is given in 
history and experience, I must be permitted to 
doubt whether it is safe to assume it. Speaking 
abstractly, and without reference to any party, I 



18 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

must be permitted to avow the conviction that the 
majority of the wisdom and virtue of any country, 
which, for the good of the country, ought to rule, 
will always be most likely to have its proper influ- 
ence, where the present will of a mere numerical 
majority is restrained and limited. Such is the 
theory of our constitution, and such the design of 
many of its provisions. But the democratic ele- 
ment of our government has acquired a predomi- 
nating force never dreamed of by its framers. The 
constitutional checks upon the popular will have 
proved inadequate to preserve the intended balance, 
at least they have lost their hold upon the acqui- 
escence of the people. It is an odious thing at the 
present day for any one to speak of the right or the 
necessity of checking the popular will. The Pres- 
ident's constitutional right of veto — the independ- 
ence of the Senate — and the inviolability of the 
Supreme Court, have all by turns been the objects 
of popular hatred and popular threats. Add to 
this the shape which the doctrine of the " right of 
instruction " is coming daily more and more to as- 
sume in the popular feeling — a feeling that goes 
nigh to strip the members of the national legisla- 
ture of the character of trusted legislators for the 
people, whose duty it is to act according to their 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 19 

best judgment and discretion, for the good of the 
nation, and to make them a mere formal board to 
register the determinations that come up from the 
primary assemblies of a thousand local districts. 
It is not necessary here to draw the line exactly 
between what is right and what is wrong in this 
feeling ; it is adverted to only to show the increas- 
ing tendency of the people to hold exaggerated and 
exclusive views on every subject involving the ques- 
tion of popular power. * 

* It is impossible to lay down any proposition in absolute terms 
on this point. It is certainly the theory of our constitution that 
the people are wise enough to choose men to be their legislators 
and statesmen ; but it does not follow that they are wise enough to 
be legislators and statesmen themselves. Nobody is born a legisla- 
tor or statesman, and it is equally absurd to suppose the mass of 
the people can ever become such. Besides, the absolute and un- 
qualified assertion of the right of instruction would involve the 
greatest inconveniences and absurdities. For the right which is 
exerted in one case, may be exerted in every other case ; and the 
consequences would be such as were certainly never contemplated 
by the constitution. On the other hand, it seems implied in the 
spirit of our government, that the deliberate sense of the commu- 
nity on great and general questions should be regarded by their 
representatives ; and there seems no particular objection to its be- 
ing expressed in the shape of instructions. This is probably all 
that moderate and enlightened holders of the right of instruction 
care to maintain. But it is none the less true that the tendency of 
popular feeling goes far beyond this, exaggerating it to an absolute 
and unqualified right. The root of this and every other instance 
of the undue predominance of the democratic spirit, is in radically 
false and absurd notions of the grounding principles of govern- 
ment, and particularly in the prevalent confusion of civil with nat- 



20 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

Whatever dangers grow out of this, are a thou- 
sand-fold increased by the unlimited extension of 
suffrage. Not contented with giving the right to 
all the native born of our own land, without any 
provision to exclude those whose ignorance unfits 
them, or whose necessities expose them to corrup- 
tion, — we extend it to all the vagabonds that come 
to us from other lands. The oppressed and de- 
graded, the idle and ignorant, the broken in fortune 
and fame, the outcasts of Europe, throng to our 
shores by hundreds of thousands yearly — to find 
here not merely asylum and protection, but to find 
themselves enrolled side by side with the sons of 
the land, and possessed of equal right to control 
the destinies of the nation. Without property or 
other stake in the welfare of the country ; without 
wisdom to exercise their new. rights ; without suffi- 
cient time and opportunity given to acquire the 
knowledge and instruction that would fit them for 
the wise exercise of such rights, and without a se- 
rious conviction of the duties those rights impose 
— they become fit dupes for the party demagogue, 
bartering often their venal vote for the means of an 
hour's intoxication ! 

ural rights. In fact, the people of this country are politically edu- 
cated in nothing but a false and overweening sense of rights. 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 21 

With, the progress of all these changes the 
spirit of party has progressively increased. Our 
country in some respects offers the finest arena in 
the world for the political demagogue. It was long 
ago apprehended by wise men as a possible thing, 
that a knot of party demagogues, under the name 
of " friends of the people/' might have it all their 
own way, and rule and ruin the people with the 
people's own consent. It remains to be seen. Be 
the event what it may, certainly the licentiousness 
of the party press has risen to a tremendous height. 
Nothing is sacred or secure. The strongest stimu- 
lants are constantly administered to the worst pas- 
sions of the people, and particularly to the preju- 
dices and passions of that portion of the people 
who rarely read but one side, who commonly be- 
lieve all that is told them by the accredited organs 
of their respective parties, and always believe what 
flatters their self-love. " It is the iniquity of men/' 
says Jeremy Taylor, " that they suck in opinion as 
the wild asses do the wind, without distinguishing 
the wholesome from the corrupted air, and then 
live upon it at a venture/' These dangers area 
hundred-fold increased from the mode and the fre- 
quency of filling the highest office in the nation 
The country has no rest from one four years' end to 






22 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

another, in preparing for these so frequently recur- 
ring struggles. Its remotest corners are agitated ; 
its quietest nooks are disturbed with the harsh con- 
flict of opinions ; — while all over the land, pesti- 
lent hordes of hungry office-seekers are stirring up 
the strife, ringing changes upon popular watch- 
words, and exciting the passions of the people. 
Why is all this ? Because the patronage and 
power of the President of the United States is far 
greater than that of most kings. I do not advert 
to this, in order to quarrel with the fact : my only 
object here is to ask if it would not be far better if 
some mode of filling the office were fallen upon, 
that should leave it more to the action of Providen- 
tial agency ; render the man who fills it less de- 
pendent upon a party ; surround him in a greater 
degree with less material, aud more moral responsi- 
bilities ; and thus leave him more free to be the 
head of the nation, and not of a party.'*' 5 

* Hereditary succession is not here intended ; but some mode of 
filling the executive office that may avoid the evils of frequent 
popular elections. In this country an astonishing prejudice prevails 
among theimass of the people on the whole subject of government 
— as if freedom of government were essentially and exclusively 
connected with certain names and forms. It needs, however, but 
little knowledge of history to show that freedom may exist under 
the names and forms of monarchy : while with all the names and 
forms of a republic, a nation may be enslaved. In regard to filling 






THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 23 

Not only is there an undue predominance of the 
democratic element, subject to all the corrupting 
influences of a virulent party press ; but can any 
sober mind fail to see many proofs and indications 
that the popular spirit is tending towards the li- 
centious anarchy of mob domination ? of Liberty 
without Law and Public Order ? Whenever, in 
any country, it fully comes to this, it is no matter 

the executive, the problem — like every other problem in the gen 
eral theory of government — is to fix upon the best mode where no 
mode is perfectly unexceptionable, that is, to fix upon the mode 
which is attended with the fewest evils. Where the executive is 
elective for life — as was the case in Poland — the evils of frequent 
elections — continual struggle and agitation — are avoided ; but the 
conflict is fiercer and more dangerous when it does occur. To 
avoid altogether the evils of elections, the executive office in some 
constitutional governments — as in England— is made hereditary. 
In this case reliance is placed upon education and various other in- 
fluences, to secure the requisite fitness for office ; yet thi3 mode, 
though in the opinion of the writer less exceptionable than fre- 
quent popular elections, is attended with obvious liabilities to evil. 
Is it allowable to suggest a mode that might perhaps be found to 
combine more advantages and fewer evils for our country than any 
other? Suppose there were a given term of Senatorial office 
longer, say, than the present ; upon the expiration of which, those 
who had served through it, should fall into a grade of Senatores 
Emeriti — out of whom, one should be taken every four or six 
years, by lot or by rotation, or by some similar mode of designa- 
tion, to be the President of the United States. In this way, the 
evils of popular election would be avoided ; private ambition, and 
rival competition in a great degree excluded ; while, on the other 
hand, the individual upon whom the office might fall, would be 
likely to be every way as suitable a persen as can be secured by the 
present mode. 



24 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

of mere speculation that a people can inflict upon 
themselves a thousand-fold more curses than the 
most iron despotism. History has set its seal to 
this truth forever. That such will never be our 
fate is devoutly to be hoped ; and there are some 
grounds of good hope. They are found in the de- 
gree in which knowledge and virtue do actually 
prevail in the nation ; in the wide extent of the 
country ; the want of a great controlling metropo- 
lis, and in the distinction of State governments 
and State rights. Moreover, there is reason to 
hope that the influence of an ever-watchful minor- 
ity in opposition, may be sufficient to counteract 
the destructive tendencies of unrestrained democ- 
racy. Giving all weight, however, to these consid- 
erations, it still remains beyond a doubt that the 
increasing love of office, the spirit of party, and 
the profligacy of the party press, furnish ground of 
reasonable alarm ; and every good man and lover 
of his country must desire to see these evils dimin- 
ished. 

I have spoken with freedom upon this great 
subject. The intention of this discourse might 
perhaps have been sufficiently attained, by simply 
adverting to the overgrowth of certain mercantile 
and political elements, as affecting the cause of 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 25 

letters and the welfare of the country. But in 
following the train of my own thoughts I have 
been led to speak also incidentally — though I con- 
fess more at large than I intended — upon some 
points in the theory and working of our government, 
and to intimate opinions from which I am aware 
that many enlightened men dissent. As to this, 
I can only say, that without reference to any par- 
ticular party, and without any disrespect for the 
opinions of others, I have frankly expressed my own 
honest convictions. Whether the particular views 
that have been intimated concerning the theory and 
working of our government are right or wrong ; and 
whether the tendencies to evil are, or are not, as great 
as have been supposed ; still every enlightened man 
must admit, that there is no form of human govern- 
ment but is incident to some peculiar class of evils ; 
that the dangerous tendencies of every democratic 
government are such as have been spoken of ; and 
that where the love of wealth and of party politics 
is advancing, as with us, to such a prodigious over- 
growth — there, to secure the conservation of the 
State — the higher and more spiritual elements of 
national well-being ought to be proportionably pow- 
erful and active. It is not, then, in the idle and 
arrogant spirit of mere fault-finding, that I have 



26 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

spoken things so little likely to be gratifying to our 
self-love. The evils to which we are exposed have 
been pointed out, in order that we may more earn- 
estly look for the means of conservation. 

What then are the means of conservation ? 
What are the counter-checks that will secure the 
safety of an intensely commercial and democratic 
State? They are religion and letters. It is 
not my intention here to speak particularly of what 
religion can do as a conservative power in a nation. 
It may be observed however, in passing, that while 
religion influences the character of a people, it is 
itself likewise always modified by the people — by 
the institutions and spirit of the country. In a 
country intensely democratic, where religion has no 
fixed and settled institutions, but is left, like every 
thing else, to the determination of the popular will, 
may we not suppose it will receive a peculiar cast 
and direction ? Where the intellectual energies 
of the people are not at all meditative — turned 
within, but all projected outward, concentrated 
upon the palpable objects of material utility ; where 
all is excitement and conflict, agitation and inten- 
sity ; will not religion be likewise subject to a cor- 
responding form of development and action ? Will 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 27 

not its tone and the direction of its influence be in 
continual fluctuation ? Will there not be a restless 
craving for religious novelty and excitement ? Will 
not its teachers find it hard to preserve the independ- 
ence of their sacred functions ? Will they not be 
exposed to the alternative of losing their influence, 
or of becoming passive weathercocks to obey and 
indicate the ever-shifting direction of the popular 
gale ? Will not the people everywhere call out for 
preaching " suited to the spirit of the age n ? — not 
meaning by it preaching suited to correct and 
amend the spirit of the age, but agreeable to the 
taste of the age ; for this mighty " spirit of the age/' 
like every thing else belonging to the supreme peo- 
ple, never thinks itself capable of being in the wrong, 
or needing correction. It demands an applauding 
echo, not a rebuke. Is there no danger that this 
"spirit of the times/' so enlightened in its own 
esteem, and so wanting in reverence for every thing 
but itself, instead of submitting to be met, checked, 
and corrected, by the whole, undivided, old-fashioned 
gospel, will lay sacrilegious hands upon it, and — 
tearing a portion of its more external truths and 
applications live asunder from the living whole and 
from their inward and spiritual grounds — will mould 
and narrow and concentrate the whole of religion 



28 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

upon an everchanging succession of objects of exter- 
nal and material reform — hurrying forever onward 
in a restless career of fierce fanaticism ? 

Before you answer these questions, look to that 
part of the country from whence have sprung and 
spread some of the most remarkable religious devel- 
opments of the age ; and where too, it is to be noted, 
have been shown the most remarkable spectacles the 
world has ever seen of intense activity on the grand- 
est scale, exerted for the physical ends of life — root- 
ing out forests, building up city after city, carrying 
forth roads and canals, and growing rich, as by the 
magic ministry of Aladdin's lamp. 

In a country like ours then, where the demo- 
cratic and commercial elements are so intense, it 
cannot be expected that religion will exert an ade- 
quate conservative influence ; unless the intellectual 
tone of the people can be exalted. It is the office 
of Keligion to diminish, by her views of eternal 
things, a too intense and absorbing devotion to the 
gross and material objects of life ; but she will 
battle it unequally, unless she is aided by causes 
that shall excite and cherish a taste and respect for 
the higher and more intellectual objects and enjoy- 
ments of the present life. 

Let us then turn to letters, as the other conser- 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 29 

vative element of the state — and the necessary com- 
plement of the former. In this aspect of our conn- 
try, we find ; in some parts, public schools, a press 
teeming with popular works, and a body of teachers 
and writers actively engaged in communicating and 
diffusing existing knowledge. I will not stop to 
dwell at length upon defects in all this. It might 
be shown how the system of education, established 
among us, tends, in some important respects, not 
so much to quicken intellectual power and to form 
decided intellectual tastes, as to furnish the modi- 
cum of knowledge necessary to enable our youth to 
rush upon the arena of life and play their part in 
the great struggle for wealth or office. It might 
be shown how the continual multiplication of works 
like most of our popular productions tends to create 
a vague and superficial knowledge, which serves 
rather as a substitute for thinking than to invigorate 
the powers of thought ; and how the mind even of 
the commonest reader gets more good from grap- 
pling with one master-mind, and by patient, 
strenuous self-exertion, fathoming the depth of one 
master-work, than by skimming forty volumes of 
" Familiar Elements/' and similar fourth-rate pro- 
ductions that are continually coming forth.* I 

* " What the youth of a nation needs," says Cousin, " are 



30 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

might point out some indications of a morbid taste 
in tlie present reading public, which require a higher 
tone of literature to correct. . But let whatever 
there is of letters among us be accepted as good ; 
and surely it is very good in comparison with hav- 
ing nothing of the kind, or even — some exceptions 
being made — with having less of it; for it tends to 
the diffusion of knowledge — a thing essential to the 
welfare of the country, so it be sound and wholesome 
knowledge ; still it is obvious to remark that the 
diffusion of knowledge is not its advancement. 
Carrying the streams all over the land is not keep- 
ing the fountains fresh and full. The teachers — 
those engaged in simplifying and communicating 
existing knowledge — can have but little time for 
increasing its amount. They can have but little 
time, even if they have the intellectual power, to 
explore the fountain heads, to enlarge them, to open 
new and fresh springs. Yet this is needed ; other- 
wise the streams are likely to get dry and stale. 

thorough and profound works, such even as are something abstruse 
and difficult ; in order that they may get the habit of encountering 
and overcoming difficulties, and serve as it were an apprenticeship to 
fit them for life and its labor. It is a sad thing to deal out to 
them only slight general notions in such a form that a child of 
five years old may learn to recite the whole book in a day from 
beginning to end, and imagine it knows something of human na- 
ture and the world. Not so should it be. Strong minds are made 
by 6trong studies," etc. Cours de la Phil. V. I. Lee. 11. 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 31 

We need then an order of men — of lofty intellec- 
tual endowment, of original creative power, exclu- 
sively devoted to the highest departments of truth, 
beauty, and letters; an intellectual High Priesthood, 
standing within the inner veil of the Temple of 
Truth, reverently w r atching before the Holy of 
Holies for its divine revelations, and giving them 
out to the lower ministers at the altar ; — thus 
teaching the teachers, enlarging their intellectual 
treasures, exalting their intellectual spirit, and 
through them instructing and elevating the whole 
body of the people. This lofty style of letters, as 
we have said, is good in itself. It is good as a 
component part of the common weal. It is good 
too — it is indispensably necessary — as a counter- 
acting power to the predominant evils that have 
been displayed. 

But how shall a learned order be created ? The 
very state of things that renders it most needful, 
not only fails to create it, but is adverse to it. 
Politics and business, public life and commercial 
enterprise, absorb the greatest portion of the best 
energies of the nation. The public will never create 
it. The public will pay for a cheap and inferior 
style of letters. The public will pay only for what 



32 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

it comprehends the value of ; it cannot comprehend 
the value of a Plato, a Bacon, a Michael Angelo, a 
Newton, a La Place ; it will not support them. It 
will not even respect and honor them while alive, 
unless it sees them surrounded with other titles to 
their reverence than those which come from the na- 
ture and value of their labors — unless it sees them 
honored by the State. Centuries after they are 
dead, from the tardy prevalence of right opinion in 
the higher quarters, the multitude may come to 
have a vague impression that they are great names, 
not to be mentioned without respect. 

It is a sad reflection, how comparatively solitary 
and uncheered by sympathy and respect, even in 
the best condition of society, is the path of a truly 
great and original mind — especially when devoted 
to the more profound and spiritual investigations of 
truth. As Coleridge says of some such one, they 
stride so far ahead of their age that they are dwarfed 
by the distance. It is perhaps one of the penalties 
of greatness — one of the abatements, in the equal 
orderings of Providence, from the enviableness of 
such high gifts. The fate of Bacon is an impressive 
case in point. The name of Bacon is now a word 
of reverence in the mouths of tens of thousands of 
the multitude, who have never indeed read a line of 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 33 

his philosophical works, and know nothing of their 
contents, unless perhaps they have skimmed the 
outlines of his great work in the " Library of Use- 
ful Knowledge/' or gleaned some crude notions 
from more casual sources. Few are aware, however, 
that in his own days, and among his own countrymen, 
his philosophical labors were not only not under- 
stood and esteemed, but depreciated and ridiculed 
— and that not merely by the courtiers and men 
of the world, but by the men of genius who ought 
to have comprehended the new sources opened to 
them. The shallow witticism of the " pedant king " 
on his great work—" that like the peace of God it 
passed all understanding " — was but the key-note 
of the whole symphony of the times. Well was it 
for Bacon that he could sustain his mighty spirit 
by keeping the " times succeeding " ever before his 
mind ; and in his last legacy " leave his name and 
his memory to foreign nations and to his own coun- 
trymen after some time be passed over"* This is 
not a solitary instance. The history of literature 
is full of similar cases ; but we cannot stop to sig- 
nalize them. A most eminent instance, in our own 
age, might be pointed out, in the " myriad-minded n 

* See Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature, 2d Series. 
2* 



34 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

Coleridge — a man of most surpassing intellectual 
greatness, wonderful alike for every kind of learn- 
ing and for every kind of creative power. He was 
indeed valued and revered by a few — the elect 
spirits of the age — and among them some of the 
highest and brightest names of our times, whose 
verdict is prophecy, whose applause is fame ; but by 
the great body of his cotemporaries he lived neg- 
lected and depreciated. But neither have I time, 
nor dare I attempt, to make his fitting eulogy. Suc- 
ceeding times will do him justice, and vindicate his 
titles to the reverential homage of his country and 
mankind. 

In a country where commercial enterprise and 
public life absorbs such a disproportionate share of 
the strongest energies of mind, it is rare to find the 
men of the world, even the best of them, adequate- 
ly appreciating the value, and respecting the labors 
of men of genius. " These men of strong minds, 
but limited capacities/' as D'Israeli says, are rather 
inclined " to hold in contempt all studies alien to 
their own habits/' This, which has ever been to a 
great extent the tendency, even in the most favor- 
able condition of things, is, from the peculiar state 
of our country, eminently the tendency with us. 
Where shall we look in our political and commercial 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 35 

world at the present day, for such, men as Cicero, 
uniting literary and philosophical tastes and labors 
with public affairs ; or the magnificent Lorenzo de 
Medici, distinguished at once as poet, and lover 
and cultivator of philosophy and art, as well as the 
great merchant and head of the State — gathering 
around him the choicest literary spirits of the age ; 
loving them ; cheering and quickening their zeal by 
public honors and rewards ; and in his intervals 
of leisure from affairs, living with them in genial 
communication on the highest themes of truth and 
beauty : 

Non de villis, domibusve alienis, 

Nee, male, nee ne, lepus saltet. Sed quod magis ad nos 
Pertinet, et nescire malum est : 



-Utrumne 



Divitiis homines, an sint virtute beati ? 
Et quo sit natura boni ; summum que ejus. 

Horace Sat. L. II. 6, 11. 



Neither by the public then, nor by individuals, 
in the present state of things, can we expect that a 
body of high and original cultivators of truth and 
letters, will be adequately sustained or respected. 

But it may be thought that men of genius i 
should be sustained by the sentiment of duty, and 



36 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING * 

the consciousness of their high vocation ; — by a 
calm and lofty confidence in the verdict of " succeed- 
ing times ; " and, above all, by the ever fresh im- 
pulse of that love of truth and letters for their own 
sake, without which no external motives will avail 
to call forth great and noble works. It is indeed 
true that no one is worthy the name of philosopher, 
poet, or artist, who regards the pursuit of truth and 
beauty, as mere means to earthly and private ends. 
Such a feeling would of itself sufficiently betray 
that the genial power of high production — the true 
mens divinior — had never stirred within them. It 
is the remark of Fuseli, that no great and genuine 
work of art was ever produced where the artist did 
not love his art for its own sake ; and the remark 
applies to every branch of science and letters.-'' All 
the master-works of the mind must be the genial 

* I cannot resist the inclination to mention the circumstances in 
which I first saw this remark of Fuseli. It was in the studio of my 
friend Allstox, to which I had been invited — a privilege rarely 
extended to any one — to see a picture he had just finished. The 
sentence from Fuseli was written in pencil on the door of a cabinet, 
and beneath it was another exquisite thought by Allston himself: 
"He who loves his art for its own sake, will be delighted with excel- 
lence wherever he sees it, as well in the work of another as in 
his own. This is the test of true love." This is beautiful, and 
beautifully expressed, — and what is pleasanter still, it is just an ex- 
pression of the true disposition of that most amiable man and orna- 
ment of our country's art. 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 37 

production of those who find their labors their own 
" exceeding great reward/' External motives can 
never bestow inward power. True love alone quick- 
ens creative energy. He who can be drawn to la- 
bor in the cause of truth and letters only by the 
earthly rewards of money and honor, will never do 
any thing worthy of reward. 

All this, however, by no means proves that such 
rewards are not needed, in order to give free and 
unrestrained scope to the action of more genial im- 
pulses. The man of genius must have a livelihood. 
However sincere his love of the true and beautiful 
and good in science, art and letters, for their own 
sake ; however glorious his energies ; however strong 
the inward impulse to high and noble production ; 
he may be pressed down by the force of external 
circumstances. The necessity of providing for the 
wants of to-morrow by the cares of to-day, may for- 
bid his giving himself up to the objects of his love. 
The votary of high truth and letters should be so 
provided for, that that he may abide in the " quiet 
and still air of his delightful studies/' and not be 
dragged forth to struggle in the work-house of the 
world for his daily bread. Then as to the respect- 
ful appreciation of his labors by his fellow-men. 
The man of genius is a man ; and therefore feels 



38 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING * 

the want of human sympathy. He may glow with 
a pure and fervent love of truth and beauty ; he 
may have a calm and self-sustained conviction that 
he is not living in vain, nor for himself alone, but 
is working in a high vocation to which he is called 
of God ; he may have a serene and lofty confidence 
in the sentence of succeeding times ; — yet he will 
often feel a discouraging sense of loneliness, if he 
sees himself the object of disregard or depreciation 
among his fellow-men ; and on the other hand, he 
will be cheered and quickened by knowing that the 
respectful thoughts and kind feelings of his contem- 
poraries are with him in his labors. Thus we see 
that genius may be repressed, and rendered fruit- 
less to the world, if it is left a prey to the cares of 
life, or the sense of disregard. Here then lies the 
value of State endowments — places of dignified 
labor and ample provision for a body of men de- 
voted to the highest interests of science and letters. 
The State is the proper power to form and sus- 
tain such an order of men. The State is the power 
that can most adequately cherish the cause of lofty 
science and learning. It does this, not by cre- 
ating genius, not by communicating a love of 
truth and letters for their own sake ; but by mak- 
ing such provision that these impulses may have 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 39 

free scope. Government can supply a place for a 
learned order to work in ; and can put honor on 
their work in the eyes of the multitude. The mul- 
titude honors what it sees honored by the State. 
In this country, above all others on the globe, men 
of science and letters have no place, no position, 
in the social system. The respect paid to wealth 
and public office engrosses all the respect that in 
other countries is awarded to high letters. The 
multitude in this country, so far from favoring and 
honoring high learning and science, is rather prone 
to suspect and dislike it. It feareth that genius 
savoreth of aristocracy ! Besides, the multitude 
calleth itself & practical man. It asketh : what is 
the use ? It seeth no use but in that which leads 
to money, or to the material ends of life. It hath 
no opinion of having dreamers and drones in society. 
It believeth indeed in rail-roads ; it thinketh well 
of steam ; and owneth that the new art of bleach- 
ing by chlorine is a prodigious improvement ; — but 
it laughs at the profound researches into the laws 
of nature, out of which those very inventions grew ; 
and with still greater scorn it laughs at the votaries 
of the more spiritual forms of truth and beauty, 
which have no application to the palpable uses of 
life. Then, again, the influence of our reading pub- 



40 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING v 

lie is not favorable to high letters. It demands, it 
pays for, and respects, almost exclusively, a lower 
style of production ; and hence a natural influence 
to discourage higher labors. As old Spenser sang, 
two hundred years ago : 

If that any buds of poesy 

Yet of the old stock, 'gin shoot again, 

'Tis or self-lost the worlding's meed to gain, 

And with the rest to breathe its ribauldry, — 

Or, as it sprung, it wither must again ; 

Tom Piper makes them better melody ! 

The State then ought to cherish high science 
and letters by endowments, for two reasons : first, 
in order to supply to a superior order of men such 
a competent provision as will leave them free to de- 
vote their powers exclusively to lofty study and 
production ; secondly, in order to develop in the 
people a proper feeling of respect for the importance 
of such labors, by the honor it puts upon them.* 
Something of this is done in other countries. A 
learned order is, to some extent, recognized and 
sustained as one of the integral elements of the com- 
monwealth. In the theory, at least, of the British 
constitution — which, taken all in all, is wonderfully 

* This is illustrated at considerable length, and set in various 
lights, in Bulwer's " England and the English." 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 41 

adapted to human nature as it is, and to the wants 
of the social condition ; the working of whose ma- 
chinery may, in the progress of time and change, 
have become disordered, and need rectifying, but 
whose dissolution or organic change should be 
dreaded — in the theory of this constitution, the State 
charges itself with the duty of providing for the 
good of the people what the people will never pro- 
vide for themselves. Hence the Cathedral, Univer- 
sity, and other Endowments for learning, science 
and art — places of high honor and trust — designed, 
in the ideal of them, to be filled by the best minds 
of the land ; where, with a modest but dignified 
provision for life and its wants, surrounded with rich 
and ample libraries, it becomes their duty to devote 
themselves to the highest departments of truth and 
letters ; working not with immediate reference to 
the bulk of the people, but for the teachers of the 
people — guarding the fountain heads of learning, 
and opening new springs ; promoting thus the good 
of all — honored and respected by all, not because 
all can fully comprehend the meaning and value of 
their pursuits, but because all see them honored by 
the State. 

Would that we could hope for some support of 
a like kind for the intellectual interests of our coun- 



42 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

try. But what has government ever done to cherish 
these interests ? Next to nothing in comparison 
with their importance and its own means. It has 
occasionally ordered a picture or a statue ; it has 
subscribed for a few books. Oh, if a portion of 
those superfluous millions, whose distribution has 
created so keen an excitement, could have been de- 
voted to founding and cherishing a great and noble 
institution for the cultivation of lofty science and 
letters, what occasion of joy to every lover of the 
cause, and to every enlightened lover of our coun- 
try ! Little, however, can at present be expected 
from government. The action of our government 
is but the reflection of the popular will ; it has but 
little power to form and direct the public mind. 
It will be yet a long time before the country at 
large is adequately awake to the importance even 
of primary education. It is pleasant to perceive a 
growing sense of this ; but the importance of a gen- 
erous provision for the cultivation of the higher de- 
partments of science and letters is scarcely at all 
felt. So far, indeed, is the mutual connection and 
harmony of the two from being discerned, that there 
is a disposition on the part of the friends of popular 
education — even among those who ought to know 
better — to dislike and oppose the claims of high 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 43 

science and letters. A great change must be 
wrought in public feeling, before the ample re- 
sources of the country will be applied to this great 
object. 

What then remains ? Shall the lovers of good 
letters despair of the cause ? Oh no ! Let them 
stir themselves up to a loftier zeal in proportion to 
the adverse influences that press upon them. Let 
them mutually quicken in each other those genial 
impulses which the chill cold atmosphere of the 
country so tends to repress. Let them brighten 
the golden chain that unites them. Let a livelier 
sympathy pervade and animate the whole brother- 
hood of those who love and honor the cause of truth, 
of beautiful art, and of good letters. Let them com- 
bine their exertions, and direct them to supplying 
those fostering influences which the Public and the 
State withhold. 

It is greatly to be regretted that there is not a 
more intimate connection among our men of letters ; 
that they meet no more frequently as a class — have 
no more free communication — and make themselves 
no more felt as a distinct body and a positive ele- 
ment in the social system. Perhaps in part it is 
owing to the want of some such point of common 
attraction as the capitals of Europe supply ; but 



44 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

more to the fact that those among us who are in 
any degree devoted to the cultivation of letters, give 
to its pursuits only the intervals of leisure snatched 
from the duties and cares of other professions, upon 
which they are dependent not only for subsistence, 
but for their social position and consequence. They 
are thus scattered abroad over the land — isolated, 
amidst the ungenial influences that surround them, 
with but little leisure or opportunity to indulge in 
the sympathies of brotherly communion, and to com- 
bine and strengthen their influence for the promotion 
of high letters. 

Would, however, that the love of these great 
interests, and a sense of their value to the country, 
might lead to more vigorous and combined exertions 
to promote them. If I might suggest, in broken 
hints, the outline of a scheme that I should desire 
to see embodied — I would say : Let a great associa- 
tion be formed, embracing all who cultivate, and all 
who appreciate the value of good learning, high 
science, and noble art. The objects of such a union 
should be by mutual sympathy, to quicken in each 
otherthe love of these things and to excite to genial 
production ; to supply, as far as possible, the requi- 
site material conditions — the means and appliances 
— that may give free scope to the impulses of genius; 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 45 

and to act upon the intellectual spirit of the nation 
— exalting its tone, developing the power and excit- 
ing the disposition to appreciate and cherish the 
productions of genius. In imitation of the German 
Society of Naturalists, let there be an annual Con- 
gress of the disciples of good letters, held in different 
places on successive years ; and let not the influence 
of these meetings die away with the speeches that 
are made. Let suggestions concerning all the most 
important desiderata in the highest departments 
of Philosophy, Art, and Literature, be received, 
carefully weighed by appropriate committees, and 
discussed in the most catholic spirit. Let prizes be 
proposed, and works of pre-eminent merit be 
crowned. But above all, let the most strenuous 
and unwearied exertions be directed to securing 
those material provisions which are requisite to 
call a portion of the highest talent and genius of 
the country into the field of science and literature. 
Here would be included the foundation of libraries, 
containing the most perfect apparatus for the 
thorough cultivation of every department of letters, 
and complete collections in nature and art ; — and 
last, but most essential, endownments for the dig- 
nified and honorable support of genius — where, free 
from life's cares, it may follow the impulses of its 



46 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

nature. Here let all those whom God hath formed 
for great poets ; great artists ; and great philosophers, 
find every condition and every influence to quicken, 
unfold, and perfect in themselves the rare and 
excellent gifts of God. Here " in the quiet and 
still air of delightful studies/' let the tenure and 
obligations of their position and the sense of duty 
unite with the inward promptings of their nature, 
leading them to work, each in his high vocation, for 
the glory of God and the honor and instruction of 
their country and mankind. 

If this be but an Idea that can never be 
realized, surely it is an idea beautiful to the imag- 
ination, and attractive to the wishes of every lover 
of truth and letters. Even if it cannot be fully 
realized, something may be done. A beginning 
may be made by the union and combined influence 
of those who have these interests at heart, and they 
may at length so act upon the intellectual spirit of 
the country as to secure the fostering influence of 
the State. At all events, the duty of uniting in 
the promotion of this great end, rests upon all who 
love the cause of truth and human progress. It 
rests upon all whom history and reflection have 
taught to dread for our country the debasing and 
deadly tendencies of a too intense and absorbing 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 47 

devotion to the mere physical interests of life. It 
rests upon all who would elevate the intellectual 
tone of the nation — develop its true humanity — 
and raise it to the true freedom of virtuous energy. 
It rests upon all who would secure to our beloved 
country the permanent possession of its true dignity 
and proper well-being. There is no alternative. 
We must be rich and great. We cannot — like the 
mountain dwellers of Switzerland and the Alps, or 
the poor inhabitants of Iceland — find in our pov- 
erty, and in the influences of religion, those safe- 
guards of our virtue and our welfare, which render 
the conservative influence of high intellectual cul- 
ture comparatively unimportant. We must be rich 
and great ; and our riches and greatness will inevi- 
tably prove our ruin — spite of all that religion will 
effect — unless the intellectual spirit of the nation 
be elevated by the pervading influence of a spiritual 
Philosophy, a pure Literature and a noble Art. 



48 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 



REMARKS ON SOME OBJECTIONS TO THE 
FOREGOING VIEWS. 



[Nearly a quarter of a century has passed 
away since the foregoing address was delivered. In 
reading it over now, in I860, I think it right to 
say that while I still regard the general principles 
and leading views of the discourse as just and im- 
portant, I find some things expressed in somewhat 
stronger and less qualified terms than I should now 
use. But, particularly, I hold it due to truth 
and to my own convictions to say — and I am glad 
to have the opportunity to say — that there has 
been, I think, during the last twenty-five years, a 
very considerable improvement in the intellectual 
tone of the nation ; that if wealth and public of- 
fice are still inordinately worshipped and pursued, 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 49 

yet not only tlie number of those who hold higher 
objects in higher esteem is greatly increased, but 
among the people at large there is much more a 
disposition to honor and respect high science and 
letters. In 1836 New York had an Astor House ; 
in 1860 it has, and for a number of years has had, 
an Irving House, a Prescott House, an Ever- 
ett House, a Bancroft House, and, for aught I 
know, a Bryant House, too ; and the like thing 
is true in our other great towns. 

The views advanced in my discourse met with 
some objections at the time. In particular they 
were strongly assailed — not directly in form, but 
with unmistakable directness in purport and inten- 
tion, and not over respectfully in terms — by the 
gentleman who followed me the next year, in ad- 
dressing the same literary societies.* I subjoin ex- 
tracts from some remarks made in reply in the 
New York Beview for April, 1838, a journal I 
had established, and which was at that time under 
my editorial charge. I do it not out of any per- 
sonal feeling — if I had any at that time (and I 

* An address delivered before the Literary Societies of the Uni- 
versity of Vermont, August 2, 1S3Y. By George G. Ingersoll. 
Burlington. 

3 



50 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

do not know that I had) it is long ago gone — but 
because they contain what seems to me a substan- 
tial answer to the objections most likely to be made 
against the leading views of my discourse, and par- 
ticularly against endowments for the promotion of 
science and learning, letters and art, and may serve 
to fortify some of the positions there taken, which 
I hold to be sound and good.] 

Instead of telling his audience wholesome truths, 
and inciting them to higher exertions in the cause 
of good letters than those which we have, in this 
country, been too contented with — the author of 
this address has chosen the easier task of adminis- 
tering to a self-satisfied vanity already inflated to 
an unhealthy degree. Nay, more ; he seems to have 
had in his eye, some brother-orator who preceded 
him on a like occasion ; and who, instead of laying 
on the altar the usual offering of fulsome eulogy, 
was wicked enough to intimate that some things 
might be better in this country than they are. He 
therefore comes forward to pour the precious balm 
of unction into the rankling wounds, to smooth down 
the ruffled plumage of self-love. 

It seems to have been an opinion expressed by 
somebody, that there is in this country an excessive 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 51 

love of gain. The author of this address thinks this 
is not the fact ; for the same thing, he says, is true 
of England, of Europe, of the world ! Indeed, he 
rather inclines to the opinion that it is a tendency 
of human nature ! at least he quotes classical 
authority for the opinion : Hominum sunt ista, non 
temporum; nulla cetas vacavit a culpa ! 

On the whole, however, after some dubitation 
on the matter, he thinks it is but fair to admit that 
the spirit of money-getting is very strong — too 
strong, indeed ; yet it would be a pity if it were 
less so. This part of his subject, in truth, seems 
to have slightly perplexed the orator ; though the 
dexterity with which he has contrived to make one 
sentence neutralize the other, is only equalled by 
that of the renowned editor of the Little Pedlington 
Observer. 

Of one thing, nevertheless, the orator is positive, 
and that is, that the love of money — which is not 
excessive, and is yet lamentably too strong, though 
it would be a pity if there were less of it — is by no 
means the exclusive passion of the people of this 
country. In proof of this, he triumphantly appeals 
to the fact, that on the " annual return " of the 
commencement of the University of Vermont, " the 
office, the counting-room, the shop, the farm, the 



S2 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

home, are all forsaken ; and all ages, sexes, and 
conditions, throng to its observance ! " He inti- 
mates, also, that the like is true at other colleges. 
This conclusively shows not only that the people 
have a respect and love for learning, and a literary 
taste, but that nothing more need be wished for on 
this score ; and not only so, but that there is in 
this country abundant provision and encouragement 
of every sort and kind for the cultivation of all the 
highest and abstrusest departments of science and 
learning ; and therefore, to point out any defects or 
to suggest any improvements, evinces an equally 
unpatriotic and ridiculous spirit of fault-finding ! 

For ourselves, our simple creed on this subject 
is, that the love of gain is a very strong passion, 
and the pursuit of it a very engrossing pursuit, 
among the people of this nation. With the unfold- 
ing of the physical resources of the country, and the 
prodigious increase of commerce and manufactures, 
the tide of wealth has rolled over the land ; and the 
passion for getting greatly and rapidly rich has nat- 
urally kept pace with the facility of getting rich. 
Now, connected with all this there is but one single 
thing to be feared — namely, lest the love of gain 
become exclusive. There is but one thing to be de- 
sired — not that there should be less wealth, but — 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 53 

that along with it there should be more of that high 
intellectual cultivation which is at least an equally 
indispensable element of national well-being. Ac- 
cording to our mode of thinking, we have already 
arrived at that point in our history, when we have 
so far fulfilled the first and more material part of 
the mission of a young nation, that it has become 
all-important to turn our attention to the higher 
and more intellectual part. For as it would cer- 
tainly be dangerous if the subordinate and material 
conditions of national well-being should acquire an 
undue predominance, so there is ground to fear it. 

It is no matter how rich a people may be, pro- 
vided there be at the same time a due proportion 
of love for intellectual and spiritual interests. 
Otherwise the love of riches will be excessive, de- 
basing, dangerous. 

" It is said, however, 5 ' (observes the author,) " that the 
great evil is, we have no checks to this spirit — such, for 
instance, as do exist in the Old World. These checks, I 
take it, are established rank, primogeniture, form of gov- 
ernment, and so on, matters all very good for those who 
choose them. But, without stopping to give any reasons, 
I shall merely say that, for one, I am very glad there are 
no such checks among us. I should like, indeed, to stop 
to ask a definition of this same word check, thus used ; for 
when I turn to the mother country where such matters 



54 IMPOKTANCE OF ELEVATING 

are found, I conclude check does not mean to suppress, 
hardly to control ; if it does, why do we hear, in the very 
midst of such checks, lamentations over what is called c an 
almost religious veneration for riches ? ' I cannot but 
stop, however, to admire the consistency of rejoicing in 
a state of high refinement and elegant leisure which wealth 
has brought about, and to sustain which wealth is abso- 
lutely indispensable, and at the same time condemning the 
pursuit of that which must be attained in order to the 
same state elsewhere. It seems like the individual who 
has retired from a business long and actively engaged in, 
with his fortune and in his splendid mansion — with libra- 
ry, pictures, statues, garden — gravely chiding some young 
man who has just started into life, and comparing his own 
learned, dignified repose with the vulgar hurry and sordid 
views of this same money-getting youth." — Pp. 17, 18. 

This is exceedingly ad captanduni; we will not 
call it flippant and foolish, but it is destitute of any 
valid bearing whatever upon the point in question. 
It is a simple question of fact, whether, compared 
with the degree of wealth and physical refinement 
we have already attained, the higher departments 
of intellectual production are held in due respect, 
duly provided for, and rewarded. It is a simple 
question of fact, whether the pursuit of wealth does 
not absorb an undue proportion of the national en- 
ergies to the neglect of higher pursuits. If so, it 

would seem quite easy to understand the desirable- 
3* 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 55 

ness of some influences that might operate — not 
" to suppress " the pursuit of wealth but — really 
to " check " the tendency to a too excessive and 
exclusive pursuit of it. " Established rank, primo- 
geniture, and so on/' might not work very well in 
this country. We, too, may be " very glad " we 
have no such things : they might work more evils 
here in other respects than they would prevent in 
the particular respect in question. They may, also, 
as the author intimates, be quite insufficient checks 
in England ; but that does not prove they are des- 
titute of all salutary effect even there ; least of all 
does it prove that it is not desirable there should 
be some influences, of some kind, in this country, 
to diminish a too exclusive devotion to wealth, by 
presenting at least other, if not higher, objects of 
respect and pursuit. Then, as to the " inconsisten- 
cy " which our critic " stops to admire/' and the 
smart simile by which it is illustrated — all this is 
easily put in a just light by the simple inquiry, 
whether we have not already wealth enough in this 
country to justify and require a much higher style 
of cultivation than obtains, and a much better pro- 
vision for the encouragement and reward of high 
intellectual exertion. There is a great deal of fallacy 
in the common-place talk about our youthfulness 



56 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING * 

as a nation. The truth is that the comparatively 
short period of our national existence is no measure 
of our advancement in civilization. We are civil- 
ized enough and rich enough, not only to have, but 
for our permanent and continued well-being to stand 
in need of, some better provision for the cultivation 
of the higher departments of learning and science. 
Not only is there no such necessity, as the orator in- 
timates, for the chief energies of the country being 
devoted to money-getting, but, unless a much larger 
proportion than the spirit of the nation now calls 
for, be turned to higher objects, we shall become a 
degenerate people. 

It has been suggested by some, as highly desir- 
able, that there should be created in this country 
special endowments, either by legislative or private 
munificence, for the support of a body of men devot- 
ed to the cultivation of those higher departments 
of science and learning, which — although of great 
intrinsic worth, and, rightly considered, of indispen- 
sable importance among the elements of national 
well-being — are not likely to be adequately cher- 
ished by the people at large. The author of this 
address, however, is opposed to such a system. It 
does not work as well in Europe as could be desired ; 
therefore it is not best to try it at all ! He quotes 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 57 

largely from English and continental authorities ; 
and seems to think the question is perfectly put at 
rest by them. Apart from the folly of totally con- 
demning a system which, because insufficiently 
established, and fettered in its working by causes 
not necessary and inherent, does not produce all 
the results that might be produced by an adequate 
and unfettered system, the orator ought to have 
recollected that on a question where " doctors disa- 
gree/' the disagreement really proves very little, 
except the disagreement ; certainly the opinions of 
the doctors on one side do not prove the opinions 
of doctors on the other side to be wrong. Speaking 
of the English Cathedral and University endow- 
ments, Dr. Chalmers recently said : " it is the 
churches and colleges of England in which is fos- 
tered into maturity and strength almost all the 
massive learning of our nation." Now, we take 
leave to say, that in our apprehension Dr. Chalmers 
is right. What does it avail to say, with the Eclec- 
tic Eeview, as quoted by this orator, " that many 
of the most valuable and elaborate productions of 
the present day, as well as of former times, have 
been given to the public, not by men of leisure who 
had uninterrupted command of weeks, and months, 
and years ; but by men whose professional avoca- 



58 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING 

tions seemed scarcely compatible with authorship ? " 
This may be very true, particularly in the depart- 
ments of History, Mathematics, and Physics — not 
to mention those departments of literary production 
which have no relation whatever to the question. 
Yet it is still true, that even in the departments 
mentioned, " many of the most valuable and elabo- 
rate productions " have been due to the fostering 
influence of endowments, and would in all likelihood 
never otherwise have been given to the world. But 
the value of endowments, and the truth of Dr. 
Chalmers' assertion, is seen in relation to other de- 
partments of production. In the Theological, Clas- 
sical, Ecclesiastical, Biblical, and Oriental learning 
of England, almost all the great works, the most- 
valuable contributions have come from the learned 
endowments of the Church and Universities. Now, 
this is a province of intellectual inquiry in which 
profound and massive learning is requisite ; and we 
say the popular patronage will never demand and 
adequately encourage the highest style of produc- 
tion. It is in vain also to expect that there will be 
enough of love and leisure for these pursuits to se- 
cure an adequate supply of profound works, from 
men absorbed in the cares of professional or public 
life. 



THE INTELLECTUAL SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 59 

Brilliant exceptions there may occasionally be, no 
doubt ; still the general truth is as we have stated 
it. The fact is, and there is no controverting it, 
that there are many departments of production in 
which a profound and thorough learning is requi- 
site ; such as can be acquired only by a life-long de- 
votion ; which the popular patronage has never any- 
where rewarded and never will reward ; which has 
been secured by the endowments of England. Pop- 
ular favor will reward the exertions of a Scott, an 
Irving, a Dickens, whom we mention with all honor 
and respect— as well of some others, for whom we 
profess no respect ; but that popular patronage will 
ever give, not fortunes, but even a decent subsist- 
ence, in reward for the exertions of such men as 
More, and Cudworth, and Potter, and Lowth, and 
Lee, and hundreds of others, who, under the genial 
fostering of England's endowments, have spent their 
lives in learned labors for the " honor of their coun- 
try and the glory of God " — any man must be very 
weak to expect. Now, we happen to be of opinion 
that the labors of such men are as valuable and 
necessary a part of a nation's best wealth, as those 
of a Scott or an Irving (and we value as much 
as anybody the labors of such as these) ; and be- 
lieving, as we do, that in this country we are la- 



60 IMPORTANCE OF ELEVATING v 

mentably deficient, and that popular patronage 
will never secure us such labors, we should be ex- 
ceedingly glad to see a wise and well-regulated 
system of endowments to encourage and reward 
them. 



THE POSITION AND DUTIES OF THE EDUCATED MEN 
OF THE COUNTRY. 



THE POSITION AND DUTIES OF THE EDU- 
CATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 



We meet, on this your anniversary, as a Broth- 
erhood of Scholars ; and perhaps I should best have 
consulted the spirit of the occasion, if I had selected 
some subject of purely literary interest, or endeav- 
ored merely to promote the elegant enjoyment of 
the hour. But I have taken the liberty to give 
our thoughts a more practical direction. I remem- 
ber that but few, if any of us, are mere scholars. 
Those who have come here to-day from different 
places, have come up from strenuous engagement 
with the intense life that is heaving and struggling 
all around us ; and when we go from here, it is to 
return into the crowd and pressure of that life again. 
And those who are about to be sent out at this 



64 POSITION AND DUTIES v 

time from this seat of learning, must leave " the 
still air of delightful studies/' in this quiet and 
beautiful retreat, and go forth to do honor to their 
Benignant Mother in the active service of their 
country and their God. 

On this account I have thought it' might be 
appropriate and profitable for us, as from this land- 
ing-place, to look out over the scene in which it is 
our destiny to live and work ; and to notice what 
it presents for warning and for guidance : — not 
forgetting indeed that we are scholars, but on the 
contrary, bearing in mind that our obligations 
are specially determined by the fact of our belong- 
ing to the educated class in the nation. — It is 
therefore of the Position and Duties of the Edu- 
cated men of the country, that I wish at this time 
to speak. 

It will not be questioned that the scholars of 
our country have a special vocation, which is deter- 
mined by all that constitutes the peculiar charac- 
teristics of our country and of our age. It is in- 
cumbent on us, therefore, to comprehend the spirit 
of our country and of our age. We are to remem- 
ber that we have fallen on the nineteenth century 
and not on the twelfth — that we live in America, 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 65 

and not in Austria. I do not mean that we should 
not understand the Past. Unless we understand 
the Past, we cannot understand the Present; for 
the Present is born of the Past. Nor do I mean 
that we should not seek to understand the most 
general spirit of the world, as well as of the coun- 
try in which we live ; for our country stands in man- 
ifold relations with other countries, and, rightly 
considered, moreover, there are, in every age, pul- 
sations which throb throughout the heart of uni- 
versal Humanity. Still, it is to the actual mind 
and heart of our own country we must speak, if we 
mean to live and speak to any purpose in our own 
times, or even for the times that shall come after us. 
Earely in the history of mankind is there to be 
found any great work of genius, of permanent and 
enduring influence, which has not borne the form 
and pressure of its age. Not always in sympathy, 
often indeed in resistance to the spirit of their times, 
yet ever, with few exceptions, as those who knew 
and felt what was the spirit of their times, have 
the great thinkers and teachers of the world uttered 
themselves. And above all things is it requisite 
that the educated men of this country should under- 
stand the spirit of the country in which they are to 
live and work. 



66 POSITION AND DUTIES 

The educated class represent the liberal cultiva- 
tion of the nation ; and to them chiefly belongs the 
duty of sustaining and cherishing the higher and 
more spiritual elements of social well-being. 

The manifold elements which compose the well- 
being of a nation may be comprehended under the 
twofold division of material or physical, and moral 
or spiritual. — In the material are included the 
means of physical support and comfort — food, cloth- 
ing, and shelter ; the security of person and prop- 
erty ; the arts of life which serve to multiply and 
refine the sources of material enjoyment ; in short, 
every thing that relates to the useful or to the agree- 
able — every thing that is implied in the proper 
meaning of the word civilization. 

On the other hand, the spiritual elements of 
national well-being result from the unfolding and 
activity of the principles of man's higher life, as 
a being capable of the Idea and Love of the True, 
the Beautiful, and the Good, — capable of discerning 
that these words relate to objects which have a 
reality and a worth beyond all material objects, a 
value independent of all consequences of private 
advantage. Hence, among the spiritual elements 
of social welfare are to be reckoned the pursuits of 
pure science ; the productions of creative Art ; the 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 67 

sense also of justice, honor, patriotism, loyalty, and 
reverence ; and the heroic spirit that can dare and 
endure for unselfish ends ; in short every thing that 
is implied in the culture of a nation as distin- 
guished from its mere civilization. 

To the proper well-being of a nation it is essen- 
tial that these elements should exist in a due and 
proportionable blending. It is indispensable that 
the material should be subordinated to the moral 
interests. Wherever and in whatever degree the 
reason becomes enslaved to the senses, there and in 
that degree do the people sink below their proper 
life, and fail to realize the true idea of a common- 
wealth. — Yet it is of the infirmity of our corrupted 
nature that the sensual life, as in individuals so in 
nations, is ever tending to predominate over the 
spiritual. 

In our country this tendency is prodigiously 
increased by causes connected with the physical 
growth of the country, and with the working of our 
political institutions. 

Our country offers the most remarkable spec- 
tacle ever presented in the history of humanity. 
From three millions, in little more than half a cen- 
tury, we have grown to seventeen millions of peo- 
ple, Inheriting an immense territory, teeming with 



68 POSITION AND DUTIES 

boundless resources, we entered upon the first mis- 
sion of every infant nation — that of subduing the 
rude yet rich nature that spread out everywhere 
around us. In this task we have not been compelled 
to proceed with the slow steps that have marked the 
progress of other nations. To the work of unfolding 
the wealth of the new world, we have brought all 
the facilities afforded by the mature civilization of 
the old world. The science, the skill, and the cap- 
ital of Europe, which centuries have been slowly 
accumulating there, have been grasped and applied 
here with a boldness and energy that have wrought 
in a day the labors of an age. It is but a few years 
since we entered upon the conquest of a country 
wilder than Germany in the days of Caesar, and ten 
times more extensive ; and yet in that short space 
we have reached a point of physical development 
which twenty centuries have not accomplished there. 
The forests have fallen down — the earth has been 
quarried — cities and towns have sprung up all over 
the immense extent of our land, thronged with life, 
and resounding with the multitudinous hum of traf- 
fic ; and from hundreds of ports the canvas of ten 
thousand sails whitens all the ocean and every sea, 
bearing the products of our soil and manufactures, 
and bringing back the wealth and luxuries of every 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 69 

quarter of the globe.— Then, too, the tremendous 
agencies of Nature — the awful forces evolved by 
chemical and dynamic science — have been subdued 
to man's dominion, and have become submissive 
ministers to his will, more prompt and more pow- 
erful than the old fabled genii of the Arabian 
Tales. Little did our fathers, little did we ourselves, 
even the youngest of us, dream — in the days of our 
childhood, when we fed our wondering imaginations 
with the prodigies wrought by those Elemental 
Spirits evoked by the talismanic seal of Solomon — 
that these were but faint foreshadowings of what 
our eyes should see in the familiar goings on of the 
everyday life around us. Yet so it truly is. Ha ! 
gentlemen, the Steam engine is your true Elemen- 
tal Spirit ; it more than realizes the gorgeous ideas 
of the old Oriental imagination ; that had its dif- 
ferent orders of elemental spirits — genii of fire, of 
water, of earth, and of air, whose everlasting hostil- 
ity could never be subdued to unity of purpose ; this 
combines the powers qf all in one, and a child may 
control them ! — Across the ocean, along our coast, 
through the length of a hundred rivers, with the 
speed of wind, we plough our way against currents, 
wind, and tide ; while, on iron roads, through the 

length and breadth of the land, innumerable trains, 
3* 



70 POSITION AND DUTIES 

thronged with human life and freighted with the 
wealth of ihe nation, are urging their way in every 
direction — flying through the valleys ; thundering 
across the rivers ; panting up the sides, or piercing 
through the hearts of the mountains, with the resist- 
less force of lightning and scarcely less swift ! 

All this is wonderful ! I look upon it with ad- 
miration, not unmixed with awe. The old limita- 
tions to human endeavor seem to be broken through 
— the everlasting conditions of time and space seem 
to be annulled ! Meanwhile the magnificent 
achievements of to-day lead but to grander projects 
for to-morrow. Success in the past serves but to 
enlarge the purposes of the future ; and the peo- 
ple are rushing onward in a career of physical de- 
velopment, to which no bounds can be assigned. 

Yet we must remember that all this is only the 
spectacle of the energies of a great people intensely 
directed to material ends. It is the unfolding of the 
conditions of physical enjoyment. And however 
great and important these are, they constitute but a 
part, and that a subordinate part, of the elements 
of social welfare and the true greatness of a nation. 
Unless interpenetrated and sanctified by the per- 
vading presence of the higher elements of spiritual 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 71 

culture, their tendency is to corrupt and degrade us. 
They can make us rich and highly civilized, though 
they can never give to civilization its highest 
charm of graceful refinement ; for that is a spiritual 
quality, and can only come of moral culture. They 
may make us rich ; but may leave us vulgar, purse- 
proud, ostentatious, and sensual; and never, in them- 
selves and of their own tendency, can they make us 
a wise, a good, and truly happy people. Besides, 
it cannot be denied, in a profounder view, that 
the physical science of the ninteenth century ; the 
mysterious forces of Nature which it has evolved ; 
the tremendous powers which it has subjected to 
the will of man ; and the immeasurably greater 
scope which he thereby gains, for rendering his out- 
ward life intense and diversified, have a tendency, 
not only to foster the spirit of absorbing worldli- 
ness, but also to engender a proud, irreverent, and 
godless spirit. I know that this is not its ne- 
cessary result ; God be thanked that it is not. 
To the right-hearted inquirer, every new disclo- 
sure of science may only serve to cherish a low- 
lier sense of the littleness of man's knowledge, and 
a profounder reverence for the Great Being, who, 
though pervading and upholding all Nature, yet, 
in his absolute glory and personal attributes, dwell- 



72 POSITION AND DUTIES 

ing above all Nature, can, by our mortal vision, be 
only dimly seen in the glimpses of himself which 
shine through the enveloping folds of the material 
universe. Still, wherever, among the mass of a 
people, physical science is wholly or chiefly prized 
as it ministers to wealth and enjoyment, the spirit 
which it tends to engender is any thing but rever- 
ent. Imagine a people destitute of spiritual cul- 
ture ; where science is pursued merely for the sake 
of compelling the powers of Nature to minister to 
man's physical convenience ; where there are no 
arts but arts of pleasure ; where the forms of hon- 
esty and justice are only outward forms, enacted 
and observed as politic contrivances for individual 
and general comfort ; — imagine such a people, and 
you have before your minds a people without honor, 
or magnanimity, without public spirit, loyalty, or 
heroism, without reverence, morality, or religion. 
They might be civilized in the highest degree ; they 
might overflow with wealth ; the earth, the ocean, 
and the air, might pour forth all their treasures ; 
they might be surrounded with all the means and 
refinements of material enjoyment, with not a crum- 
pled rose leaf to disquiet the couch of luxurious 
ease ; and yet they would be only a nation of re- 
fined animals, of civilized brutes. We should belie 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 73 

the instincts of our reason and conscience, if we 
should think otherwise of them. 

Happily, such a picture is only imaginary. — 
Thanks to the benignant influences of Divine" Grace 
diffused throughout the world, the reason and con- 
science, the spiritual life of man, though overmas- 
tered, can never be wholly crushed out ; and the 
social and domestic instincts are ever evolving 
moral affections — love, self-denial, sacrifice, hero- 
ism — which serve to exalt and purify the earthly 
life of man. None the less, however, is it true, 
that whenever the material greatly predominate 
over the moral elements in the life of any people, 
then the spirit of the nation begins to approximate 
to the corrupt, unhallowed, godless state we have 
imagined. 

Now looking at the condition of our country at 
this moment, have we nothing to fear ? I do not 
quarrel with the prodigious growth of the elements 
of physical prosperity. I only ask, whether we 
have not reason to dread an overgroivth ? Is not 
our danger on this side ? I know there are many 
who have no other idea of national well-being than 
riches and greatness. So that a people can subdue 
the earth to serve the turn of their worldly uses ; so 



74 POSITION AND DUTIES 

that they can accumulate wealth and the means of 
enjoyment — that is the extent of their solicitude. 
They laugh at all this talk about the higher and 
more spiritual elements of social welfare. I thank 
God I am not of the number of such persons. " Con- 
tempt is ever the growth of a thin soil ; " * and 
contempt of high moral and religious considerations 
is eminently the mark of a poor and shallow intel- 
lect. For myself, I must profess my conviction 
that we are very far from growing wise and good and 
truly happy as a nation, in the proportion that we 
are growing rich and great. I believe there is a 
prodigious and increasing overgrowth of the cor- 
rupting spirit of worldliness. I had rather we 
should be poor as Iceland, yet with its pure faith 
and morals and its love of letters, than we should go 
on increasing in wealth and greatness without a cor- 
responding increase in spiritual culture and moral 
worth. I had rather — if this must be the alterna- 
tive. But it need not be. If God has planted us 
in a richer land, I do not see but we may unfold 
and appropriate its manifold resources, without neg- 
lecting the culture of our higher life. We may 
dwell on the earth, and thrive ; yet we need not be 

* Richard II. Dana ; unpublished Lectures. 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 75 

mere thriving earth-worms. We may follow worldly- 
callings, and yet not be worldly-minded. We may 
possess and enjoy wealth, without sinking into the 
life of mere material enjoyment. The danger is 
great, it is true ; but corruption is not the necessary 
result of physical prosperity. — I cannot doubt that 
it is in the intentions of God, in the progress of our 
race, that the material world shall be still more per- 
fectly subjugated, and its resources of material en- 
joyment be still more fully unfolded ; and yet the 
whole physical life of humanity be subordinated to 
its moral life — pervaded by it — yea, made to sub- 
serve its growth and perfection. If this be so, the 
problem is not to arrest the physical growth of the 
country, but to make it the means of more perfectly 
unfolding our proper humanity, by the culture of 
the elements of spiritual life. To contribute to the 
solution of this problem is eminently the vocation of 
the scholars of our country — of all who have been 
trained in liberal studies — of all who work in the 
liberal professions. 

Let us now for a moment advert to the working 
of our political institutions ; for in this aspect our 
country presents a spectacle no less remarkable than 
in its physical growth. I beg however a candid 



76 POSITION AND DUTIES 

construction of what I am about to say. I am of 
no political party ; and I shall not speak of party 
questions ; but of principles and of the tendencies 
of principles, common to all parties ; and perhaps 
I may say some things which to neither party will 
be entirely acceptable. Yet I cannot think that in 
a survey of the moral condition of our country, we 
should be justified in leaving out of view the most 
pervading and the most powerful of all the influences 
that affect the character of a nation — its political 
institutions. Nor can I think that courtesy, or the 
proprieties of an occasion like the present, should 
exclude all political views, except such as are known 
to be held in common by all. It seems to me that 
we should rather suffer every man freely to utter 
the thought that is in him — whether it be an echo 
of our own or not — if so it be uttered with deep 
conviction, with an earnest spirit, and with an hon- 
est purpose. Without any party bias, then, and 
with the highest respect for all those whose opinions 
may not coincide with my own, I shall proceed 
to express myself in my own fashion of thinking 
and speaking, relying on a kind and candid con- 
struction. 

Theoretically perfect as is the frame' of our 
government, it implies conditions of virtue and 



OF THE EDUQATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 77 

wisdom on the part of the people, which if they do 
not adequately exist, renders ours the most danger- 
ous of all forms of government ; and I must avow 
my conviction that in its practical working, or 
rather in its abuses, our system is tending with pro- 
digious power to corrupt and demoralize the nation. 

It is the fundamental maxim of all political 
ethics, that political Eights imply political Obliga- 
tions : so much the more Liberty a people enjoys, 
and so many the more Eights they possess, so many 
the more are their Duties. — Yet at the present mo- 
ment, notions of popular rights appear to me to 
have sprung up and spread over the country, which 
are false, absurd, and dangerous. We have got the 
habit of taking for granted that the people have a 
right to do, whatever they please to do ; and that 
whatever they please to do is therefore right. Po- 
litical Eight has thus become separated from Duty ; 
and has practically come to mean nothing but mere 
Popular Will. 

We are continually told that the sovereign pow- 
er resides in the people. This is in its naked form 
but a half-truth : and, as has been well said, a half- 
truth is often the greatest of lies. It is unques- 
tionably true that the sovereign power, in a certain 
sense, resides in the people ; but in the sense in 



78 



POSITION AND DUTIES 



which it is commonly understood, it is a great and 
pernicious error. — It is God's ordinance, and the 
necessity of man's nature, that man should exist in 
Society. To do this he must exist as a STxYte — 
that is, a community in which justice and social 
order are maintained. Government is the powers 
of the State organized, embodied, and put in action ; 
and the form of Government, is the particular mode 
in which the powers of the State are embodied and 
put in action. 

Now undoubtedly the sovereign power resides in 
the People, in the sense that the People have the 
right of determining the form of their Government. 
This is indeed a natural right, but it is so no fur- 
ther than as men have a natural right to choose in 
which way among several possible ways, they will 
fulfil a duty ; and it is absurd to lay undue stress 
upon the term. It is not, however, an absolute 
right ; but a right growing out of a duty, and limited 
by duty. Society has the right of choosing the 
form of its Government, because it is the duty of 
Society to exist as a State for the maintenance of 
social justice, and must have some form of govern- 
ment ; and it may choose any particular form it 
prefers, provided it fulfils the duty of the State — 
maintains the relations of justice — without which 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 79 

Society cannot exist. In this sense, unquestionably, 
and in so far as relates to the form of government, 
the sovereign power resides in the People ; still it 
is not precisely an accurate statement of this truth 
to say, that the people have the right to choose 
whatever form of government they please, without 
regard to anything but their own mere will ; for, 
unless the various forms of government are assumed 
to be equally adapted to the great ends of society, 
it is more true to say that the people ought to 
choose — not that form of government which they 
may simply prefer, but — that form which they con- 
scientiously believe to be the best adapted under all 
the circumstances to secure the true ends of all 
government. 

Hence it is clear, that the foundation of govern- 
ment is not in the mere unlimited will of the peo- 
ple ; and that the sovereignty of the people is not 
in mere natural right, but in duty. We are too 
prone in general to forget the great comprehensive 
truth, that rights and obligations ever go together. 
There is scarcely such a thing in all the empire of 
God, as the absolute right of doing what one merely 
wills to do. The only absolute right in the uni- 
verse, is the right of not being wronged. And in 
political affairs, neither the mere will of a majority, 



80 POSITION AND DUTIES 

nor even of the whole people, can itself make a 
thing right, or justify their action. Nothing can be 
made right by mere willing to do it. — Still, as a 
right which is to be dutifully exercised, I maintain 
the doctrine that the sovereignty is vested in the 
people. And in the exercise of the sovereign pow- 
er residing in them, the people of this country have 
organized our form of government — and have defined 
and distributed the powers of the State. They 
have done this in our Constitution. Practically 
therefore to all intents and purposes, the sovereignty, 
at this moment, and so long as the Constitution 
stands unrepealed, is lodged in the Constitution. 
That is the supeeme law of the land ; there resides 
the sovereign power of the nation ; and it resides 
there out of the reach of the present will of a mere 
numerical majority. The Constitution can be 
changed only under particular circumstances, and by 
three fourths of the states. 

To this Constitution the people of the United 
States at this moment owe an allegiance as loyal 
and profound, as was ever claimed for the divine 
right of kings, and much more sacred and enno- 
bling. To all practical purposes the political rights 
and duties of the people are just what they are de- 
fined and prescribed to be by the Constitution. 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 81 

They have no other political rights than are therein 
allowed ; and are bound to all the duties therein 
enjoined. — The Idea of the State in our country 
is : all the people acting under and according to 
the Constitution. This is what we mean by a free, 
Constitutional government, in distinction from a 
pure Democracy, like that of Athens, where all 
the people act without a Constitution. Such is the 
State in theory.- — In regard to the practical exercise 
of Sovereign powers, it takes three fourths of the 
people to constitute the State. A mere majority 
is therefore no more the State, than Louis XIV. 
was the State ; and it is sheer absolutism, in our 
country, for the majority to set itself up as the State, 
just as much as it was in France for Louis XIV. to 
set himself up as the State. The Supreme Power 
of the nation no more resides in a mere numerical 
majority than in the minority. The majority pos- 
sess just those rights and powers which are given 
by the Constitution, and no others. What are they ? 
As to their personal rights — though these are not 
strictly in the question, yet they may here be stated 
— in common with all the inhabitants of the land, 
strangers or citizens, voters or not voters, the ma- 
jority have the right of being protected as individ- 
uals in their persons and property, provided they 



82 POSITION AND DUTIES 

do no wrong ; and if they do wrong, of being fairly 
tried according to law by the judgment of their 
peers. — As to their political rights ; in common with 
All voters, they have in certain cases, in reference 
to the appointment of certain public agents, the 
right of suffrage ; and in regard to the questions 
thus submitted to the whole body of voters, the ma- 
jority have the right of deciding. The amount of 
the political rights of the majority, then is this : 
that their will, when legally expressed, is decisive 
in regard to a certain number of questions submitted 
by the Constitution to a popular vote. — So far there- 
fore from constituting the State, a numerical ma- 
jority of the people, in their political action, is sim- 
ply an organic part of the State, just as the Legis- 
lative, Judiciary, and Executive, are organic parts 
of the Government ; and its rights and powers, like 
theirs, are conferred, defined, and limited by the 
Constitution ; and finally these rights and powers 
are inseparably linked with duties — the majority are 
bound to act within their limits, and to act con- 
scientiously there. 

These are the simplest elements of our political 
ethics. They belong to the very primer of our po- 
litical science. — Yet how well are they understood ; 
how much are they felt ; how much are they practi- 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 83 

cally regarded ? — Alas, gentlemen, I know not how 
it may appear to you ; but to me it seems that in 
comparison with their indispensable necessity to 
our political salvation, these truths are scarcely at 
all felt. Unless I greatly mistake the spirit of the 
country, there is a blind feeling, widely prevalent 
and rapidly increasing, as if the mere present will 
of a majority, however expressed, and on all subjects, 
as well without as within its legal limits, is, and of 
right ought to be, the supreme power of the nation. 
Whenever the people are told that there is any thing 
which they cannot rightfully do, their impulse is to 
feel indignant, as if some monstrous outrage were 
perpetrated against the sacred principles of eternal 
justice, which they were called upon to avenge. 
To differ from the popular opinion seems to them 
a crime — a thing to be punished. They cannot un- 
derstand that you have as good a right to your 
opinion, as they to theirs — that they differ from you, 
as much as you do from them. — In proof that this 
is so, go and address the popular political assem- 
blages of our country. Tell them that you honestly 
believe it to be a possible thing that there shall not 
be wisdom and virtue enough in the nation to make 
the experiment of self-government successful ; and 
in nine cases out of ten you provoke their displeas- 



84 POSITION AND DUTIES 

lire, not merely for being bold enough to utter an 
unpopular doctrine, but as being guilty of treason 
against the sacred principles of freedom. Tell them 
that you think it best for the popular good, and 
therefore right, that the popular will should be 
checked by constitutional restraints ; and ten to one 
you will be hustled from the stand as an aristocrat, 
a monarchist, an enemy to the people. Or, if they 
allow you to remain there long enough, tell them 
that the original framers of our Constitution were 
true and genuine lovers of rational freedom, and yet 
that they have framed the Constitution so as to be 
a check upon a present numerical majority ; that 
our frame of government in various respects is full 
of restraints upon the popular will ; — and there are 
thousands and tens of thousands to whom such doc- 
trine would be entirely strange and revolting. They 
would not even believe you. Yet you would tell 
them nothing but the truth — nothing which our 
public men do not know to be true. Why is it, then, 
that our public men rarely or never tell the people 
these truths, comment, explain, and urge them ? 
It is because these truths, however important and 
vital, are odious to the people ; and they will not 
bear them. 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 85 

From this erroneous and exaggerated notion of 
Rights, and this feeble sense of Duties, it is easy to 
see to what dangers we are exposed. When the 
people feel as if the cause of popular rights, as they 
understand them — that is, the right of the majority 
to do just what it pleases — is not only their own 
cause, but the cause of every thing most sacred, of 
Truth, of Freedom, and of God ; what protection 
has society against licentious abuses of power ? In 
private life the man who does every thing he has a 
right to do, in the sense of the word now in ques- 
tion — that is, every thing which the Law will not 
punish him for doing — is a villain. That we are 
not cursed with such villains at every turn in life, 
we owe to the influence of conscience and the pow- 
er of public opinion. But what protection is there 
in conscience, or in public opinion, against the un- 
just acting of a people firmly believing in the Di- 
vine Right of a majority to have its own way at all 
events ? How much is the responsibility of a mul- 
titude felt by the individuals that compose it ? Is 
it not practically as if it were a question concerning 
the seventeen millionth part of the national con- 
science ? — In the name of Liberty the Jacobins of 
France cut off the heads of poor decrepit old women 
for complaining of the national bread ; for not crying 



86 POSITION AND DUTIES 

out lustily enough the watchwords of revolutionary 
frenzy ; and even for the singular crime of being 
" suspected of incivism." Hundreds of similar 
atrocities you may find in the records of their 
Eevolutionary Tribunals. I do not say that we shall 
ever witness any such abominable excesses among 
us. I do not believe we shall. None the less how- 
ever are we bound to be aware of the dangers to 
which we are exposed from exaggerated notions of 
the rights of majorities. The tendency is to make the 
popular will overbear all moral considerations, and 
all constitutional limitations. Popular majorities 
may come to feel themselves justified in reaching 
their ends by almost any and every means. In the 
strife of party politics the people may come to feel 
as if it were allowable to secure a victory in any 
way, right or wrong ; and political corruption, if not 
openly justified, will be condemned only in the op- 
posite party, while in reality its heinousness will be 
lightly thought of, if only it be coupled with the 
Spartan virtues of dexterity and success. 

In such a state of things all honorable and up- 
right freedom of political opinion and action in pub* 
lie men is in danger of becoming next to impossible ; 
and the truly enlightened patriot, the true friend 
of the people — who, because he is their true friend, 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 87 

will not flatter their passions and echo all their no- 
tions, be they right or wrong — is likely to be de- 
prived of all scope for public action. The demagogue 
will carry it over him by a thousand to one. There 
never was a country in the world, from the days of 
Pericles to the present time, which furnished such 
unbounded scope for the demagogue as ours ; and 
never was a country so cursed with demagogues. 
The demagogue and the courtier are but opposite 
poles of the same character. The demagogue per- 
petually tells the people that they are sovereign — 
that there is no higher law than their will. Like 
the courtier he flatters and cajoles the sovereign, in 
order to mislead and rule him. What chance for a 
fair hearing has the honest friend of the people ? It 
certainly cannot be said to be unnatural for men to 
confide in and yield themselves to the guidance of 
those who bow to their will, flatter their vanity, or 
minister to their passions. In point of fact what 
public man dares resist the current of party opin- 
ion, and the demands of party discipline ? What 
truths unpalatable to the popular taste, however vi- 
tally important to the public welfare, do the politi- 
cians of either party dare to tell the people ? What 
popular errors, however dangerous, do they dare 
expose and denounce ? From the political and 



88 POSITION AND DUTIES 

party presses, controlled by demagogues, the people 
almost never hear the truth. Morning, noon and 
night, they are fed on falsehoods ; and nursed in 
prejudices, hatreds and animosities. All consid- 
erations of truth, decency and reverence, give way 
before the violence of party spirit ; and the blind 
and bitter spirit of party is continually stimulated 
by provocatives addressed to the ignorance, the prej- 
udices and violent passions of the people ; and in 
the midst of all their professed homage, love and 
respect for the people, the demagogues show clearly 
enough to the discerning eye in what real contempt 
they hold the knowledge, the wisdom and the virtue 
of the people, by the boundless impudence of the 
lies, flatteries and quackeries with which they seek 
to cajole and lead them. 

And which way tends the political destiny of 
the nation under these influences of the party 
presses and of political demagogues ? It tends 
to throw the absolute power of the nation into 
whatever party of demagogues, calling themselves 
friends of the people, can most successfully cajole 
and corrupt the people. It tends, in short, to a 
democratic absolutism — the worst of all forms of ab- 
solutism, the most pervading and the least conscien- 
tious. Any party supported by a popular majority, 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 89 

can at any time overbear the Constitution, and ab- 
sorb into itself all the powers of the State. — Thus 
with all the forms of the Constitution remaining, 
the Constitution itself may be effectually subverted. 
And which way tends this state of things ? Is not 
nearly every thing in the country now decided by 
party majorities, procured fairly and legally, if pos- 
sible, but procured at all events ? And what is 
the great absorbing party question ? Every one 
knows. Not a petty municipal officer in the ob- 
scurest village in the country, whose election does 
not turn on the Presidential question. To what 
does this tend but to an absorption of all the pow- 
ers of the State into the Executive ? I do not say 
this as belonging to either party. I go with neither ; 
and all that I have said is freely applicable by all 
parties. I speak only of the direction in which, 
unless we shut our eyes to all the lights of past 
history and to all the facts of present observation, 
we must believe we are at this moment tending. 
Significant tokens have already displayed themselves, 
which he who has eyes to read them, cannot fail to 
interpret. Is not the legislation of the country, at 
present and to a prodigious extent, originated and 
controlled by Executive influence ? Has not the 
existence of the Senate, one of the august and in- 



90 POSITION AND DUTIES 

violable branches of our constitutional government, 
been openly threatened ? Has not the independ- 
ence, and therefore the constitutional existence, of 
the Judiciary been invaded by the proposals to 
render its judges removable at executive pleasure ? 
Have we not come within a few years past to 
hear the Executive spoken of as the Government ; 
to hear of the obligations of office-holders to regard 
themselves as servants of the Executive, instead of 
being holders of public trusts for the Nation ; with 
various other expressions of the like kind — expres- 
sions never dreamed of in the days of Washington — 
expressions which would have been heard with hor- 
ror in those days, but which are now such familiar 
terms in our political vocabulary that we use them 
without thinking the changes they imply ? 

Now can any one fail to see that these influences 
of party demagogism, supported upon the false and 
exaggerated notion of the rightful supremacy of a 
popular majority, tend to the virtual overthrow of 
the Constitution ? The forms of the Roman Re- 
public — its senate, its tribunes, and its consuls — re- 
mained for ages after all the powers of the state 
had passed into the hands of an absolute executive 
supported by pnetorian guards. This may never be 
our destiny. But how much better off are we likely 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 91 

to be with an absolute executive supported by the 
unconstitutional powers of a popular majority ? 

Many look for salvation in a change of men — 
in the party tables being turned. I look for no 
such thing. The danger lies not in any particular 
party, but in principles held by all parties, or at 
least in the necessity which all parties will, I fear, 
ever be under of echoing, and supporting themselves 
upon, the erroneous popular doctrine which now 
lies practically at the ground of our system. I 
look for no permanent political salvation in a mere 
change of parties and men. I look for political 
salvation only in a return of the people to true no- 
tions of liberty — to sound constitutional political 
opinions, to the spirit of loyalty, of reverence for 
law and order, and to public virtue. 

It is not, however, gentlemen, chiefly with ref- 
erence to its bearing upon the integrity of our Con- 
stitution, nor with reference to any changes which 
may hereafter be wrought in our mere political ex- 
istence, that I have dwelt upon the popular notion 
respecting the rights of majorities, and upon the 
spirit and tendencies which have their root in this 
prevalent notion. For after all, in an abstract view, 
it matters comparatively little what form of gov- 



92 POSITION AND DUTIES 

eminent we have, provided it be well administered,, 
and provided the people be truly cultivated, wise 
and good. It is in the virtue, the moral worth, of 
the people, that the well-being of a nation essen- 
tially consists. But I have dwelt upon it, because 
political institutions, government and laws, are 
everywhere the most powerful of the causes that 
form the moral character of a people ; because 
every free government can do more to exalt or cor- 
rupt the morals of a nation than all other causes ; 
and because I cannot resist the conviction that the 
actual political influences which are at work in our 
country, are tending to corrupt the moral spirit of 
the nation. 

Look at the working of parties among us. Is it 
not a grand political game — the possession of the 
powers and patronage of the government being the 
stake ; demagogues the players ; and the people the 
pawns ? Is not every thing decided by a hot conflict 
of party tactics ? Is it not considered and called a 
battle, a war ; and by an easy association has not 
the old corrupt adage, u all is fair in war/' come 
to be a practical maxim ? Hence in our elections 
what scenes of violence ; what licentiousness of the 
party press ; what misrepresentation of facts for 
political effect ; what slander, calumny and abuse 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 93 

heaped in turn upon every eminent person in the 
nation ! Latterly the temper of people, in these 
respects, has passed into their great legislative 
body ; and the scenes of vulgar and indecent vio- 
lence which have been recently enacted in Congress, 
are fitter for a bear garden than for the dignified 
assemblage of the representatives of a great people. 
What must be the effect of this, reacting again 
upon the spirit of the nation ? Does it not tend to 
eat out of the heart of the people all loyalty — all 
reverence for justice, law and public order ? Per- 
sons may think lightly of this ; but I ask them to 
tell us how there can be a great heroic people with- 
out reverence. It is impossible. And in order to 
maintain in the heart of a people reverence for Jus- 
tice, Law and Public Order, the people must rever- 
ence also the Forms, the Institutions, in which those 
great Ideas are embodied and represented. Form 
is throughout the Universe the necessary condition 
of every spiritual manifestation. The moral life of 
a nation is displayed and seen and felt only in its 
forms, just as the life of the vegetable and animal 
world is seen and felt only in its appropriate forms. 
When the people cease to reverence the institutions 
and persons which embody and represent the ideas 
of Justice, Law and Public Order, it is but a short 



94 POSITION AND DUTIES 

step to cease to reverence the ideas themselves. 
"With the decay of reverence for the forms, dies out 
also the reverence for the substance. Like the be- 
sotted Africans they may indeed continue to set up 
the Fetisch gods of their self-will, and to dash them 
down at every caprice of passion ; but all sense of 
loyalty, all profound feeling of the allegiance which 
they owe to the sacred majesty of justice, law and 
order, will be merged in a wilful determination to 
have their own way at all events. 

Then, again, consider more directly the influence 
which the popular feeling that politics is a war, and 
that all is fair in war, must have upon the private 
morals of a nation. How long will it be before that 
people who stick at nothing in politics will come 
to stick at nothing in morals ? It is impossible 
that political profligacy should not in the long run 
lead to corruption in private morals. All history 
proves this truth ; and, gentlemen, our own obser- 
vation may suffice to give us more than one token 
of the direction in which we are moving. Within 
the last five or six years, there have been more gov- 
ernment defaulters, and more breaches of other high 
pecuniary public trusts — ten times more in number 
and amount, than in the whole former period of our 
national existence. Will any one say that these 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 95 

and many other instances of moral dereliction ; as 
well as the scenes of lawless violence that so fre- 
quently occur, and the comparative apathy with 
which they are looked upon and forgotten ; cannot 
be traced to the working of political influences ? 
To' me it seems there is no cause so obvious ; no so- 
lution so adequate. Let political corruption once 
become an organized element in the political action 
of a nation, and it cannot fail to corrupt the private 
morals of the people. I do not say that corruption 
has become an organized element in the political 
action of this nation ; but I do say that within the 
last few years there have been developments enough 
in this direction, to overwhelm us with shame, and 
to become the ground of serious apprehension for 
the future. 

Thus, gentlemen, I have rapidly glanced at some , 
aspects of our country, connected with its physical 
growth, and with the working of its political institu- 
tions. It may perhaps be thought that the repre- 
sentation is overdrawn and falsely colored. I do not 
admit that it is so. It will not be denied that 
sources of danger and tendencies to evil exist in all 
nations. Those which exist in our case are cer- 
tainly not those which result from poverty — desti- 



96 POSITION AND DUTIES 

tution of physical resources , skill, enterprise and 
energy ; nor from political restraint or oppression. 
They are precisely those to which a rich and free 
people — an intensely enterprising and intensely 
democratic people — are exposed. Besides, it is 
chiefly of principles and tendencies I have spoken ; 
and as to what I have said respecting the evils 
actually existing among us — the party press, dema- 
gogues, unconstitutional notions of popular rights, 
political corruption — I maintain that it falls below 
the truth of facts. I do not say that these evil 
influences will soon or ever work the actual downfall 
of the nation ; but I do say that such is the inevita- 
ble result of their unchecked working. I do not say 
that there exist no checks. I freely and gladly 
admit that there are manifold conservative powers 
in action amongst us. But notwithstanding these 
better influences, the dangers to which we are 
peculiarly exposed are of such sort and so great as 
to beget reasonable apprehension ; at all events 
they show the immense importance of specially 
cultivating the higher moral elements of national 
welfare, by which alone the dangerous tendencies to 
undue worldliness and to political and social corrup- 
tion can be effectually counteracted. 

It is in this connection that I urge the duty 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 97 

which rests upon the educated men of the country 
of striving to exalt and purify the intellectual and 
moral spirit of the nation. Not that I would make 
an invidious distinction ; not that the duty does not 
rest upon all classes, upon every true patriot and 
good man. But it is a body of young scholars whom 
I address : it is upon the body of the educated men 
of the country that the duty in question eminently 
rests. Of the culture of the nation they are the 
proper representatives, and the special guardians. 
If they are indifferent and negligent, what other 
class will be earnest and faithful ? What other 
class could discharge their special obligations ? 

Eminently then upon the educated class rests 
the obligation of cherishing the higher intellectual 
and moral interests of the commonwealth. It is a 
duty which in this country is not only immensely 
important, but surrounded with peculiar difficulties. 
Amidst special tendencies in the spirit of the na- 
tion to a predominating worldliness, it is the voca- 
tion of our scholars to cherish in themselves and 
diffuse around them a love of science, of letters, of 
art — of all that is liberal. Unaided, and even 
counteracted, by the working of our political insti- 
tutions, they are to strive to extend the spirit of 
political virtue — public spirit, heroism, reverence 



98 POSITION AND DUTIES 

for law and order. In their endeavors to exalt 
and fortify the private morals of the nation, they 
find their exertions counteracted not only by the 
ordinary temptations which surround mankind, but 
also by the strongly demoralizing tendency of our 
party politics. Thrown so early, too, as our young 
scholars are into the struggles of professional exer- 
tion ; isolated from each other in the midst of the 
intense practical and material life that is around 
them, they are greatly exposed to the danger of losing 
the love of good letters, the liberal and cultivated 
tastes, which they may have gained ; and of surren- 
dering themselves to the very influences which they 
should strive to counteract. 

But if we cannot expect that the body of our 
educated men will go forward and perfect themselves 
in a high and refined cultivation, there is yet one 
part of their vocation to which it is right to expect 
them to be faithful. This is to preserve the spirit 
of the liberal callings." The liberal Professions 
have indeed utility, and not beauty, for their end ; 
and in this respect they differ from the liberal Arts. 
But still they are liberal professions ; because they 
are, according to the idea of them, free from the 
necessity of seeking private gain or advantage as 
their end. They have utility for their end ; but it 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 99 

is the public utility, and not the private advantage 
of those who pursue them. In other callings, impor- 
tant as they are in their results to society, and 
respectable as they are in themselves, the end for 
which they are pursued is wealth or a livelihood. 
This is in general the idea of them, and the reason 
why they are followed. On this ground rests the 
expectation that the callings of the merchant, the 
banker, the farmer, the artisan, will be followed to 
any extent required by the public interests. But, 
in the idea, at least, of the liberal professions, 
although their members must have a livelihood in 
order to practise them, yet they are not to practise 
them merely for the sake of the livelihood. Herein 
lies the ground of the more dignified position and 
more respectful estimation which society has accord- 
ed to the liberal professions. The clergyman, the 
physician, the teacher, the lawyer, are supposed to 
engage in their several callings for the sake of the 
public welfare ; and in proportion as they make 
their professions mere means to private ends — even 
their own livelihood, they degrade their callings, and 
forfeit their title to public respect. 

In the olden times, this idea of the liberal pro- 
fessions was more distinctly recognized than at 
present : on the one hand, the members of the 



100 POSITION AND DUTIES 

liberal professions were expected to perform the 
duties of their callings without pecuniary charge ; 
and on the other hand, the people were supposed 
to be under obligation to provide freely for their 
modest yet dignified support ; and to hold them in 
honorable estimation, all the higher for the worldly 
advantages or chances of advantage they surren- 
dered. At the present day also we see the recogni- 
tion of this idea in the sentiment of the incongruity 
of a clergyman being devoted to mere worldly pur- 
suits ; in the indignation which would be felt against 
the physician who should refuse the gratuitous suc- 
cors of his art to the sick and dying poor ; in the 
disgrace, and probable expulsion from the society 
of his brethren, with which a lawyer would be visited 
who for the guerdon of pecuniary reward should lend 
himself to pervert the course of justice and become 
a villain's tool. Yet it is to be deeply lamented that 
there is too little of the true spirit of the liberal 
callings, both among those who follow them and in 
the community at large. Let it be cherished, and 
kept alive and quick in the minds of our educated 
men, and incredibly great and salutary will be its 
influence in exalting and refining the spirit of the 
whole nation. 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 101 

Again : let our educated men shun the politi- 
cian's trade. I do not say they should never accept 
of public offices of trust and honor, nor that they 
should never seek them ; but they should never 
seek them for private ends, and they should only 
accept them when they believe they can fill them 
honorably and independently for the public good. 
Our scholars and professional men should take a 
deep interest in politics ; should indeed study them 
profoundly ; but never should they become mere 
politicians, partisan aspirants for popular favor and 
applause, greedy seekers of office and the gains of 
office. They should aim to be independent, free- 
spoken teachers of political truth and political duty. 
They should strive to make themselves understood 
as a body of honest counsellors, seeking by pen and 
tongue and personal influence to make the people 
truly enlightened on all political doctrines and 
measures ; to whom the people may look for fair dis- 
cussion, true information, and sound advice. Let 
them tell the people the truth — the truth which 
the demagogues will never tell them. 

Were it not that a wisdom in the manner, and 
a blamelessness of character almost more than hu- 
man, might seem requisite in order not to impair 
the peculiar spiritual influence of their office, I 



102 POSITION AND DUTIES 

would say that the ministers of religion should be- 
come political teachers of the people from the pul- 
pit. I do not mean that they should meddle with 
party politics, nor that they should treat political 
subjects — whether general principles or special 
measures — as politicians. Let them leave that to 
others. But that it should be inexpedient (when 
done without impropriety of language or manner) 
for them to urge distinctly upon the minds and 
consciences of their flocks the sense of Christian 
responsibility in the exercise of their political rights, 
is the fault of the people. To " honor the king " 
is a sacred injunction which in Holy Scripture stands 
in immediate connection with the precept to " fear 
God ; M that is to say, a Christian people are as 
much bound to discharge Christianly their political 
as their other social duties ; and it is the business 
of the ministers of religion to enforce every branch 
of moral duty. I can conceive that the clergy 
might, with such simplicity and affectionate spiritual 
earnestness, so manifestly free from all selfishness 
or worldiness of tone or purpose, unite in the habit- 
ual practice of urging the obligations of Christian 
morality in the exercise of political rights, as not 
to impair, but rather to increase the salutary influ- 
ence of their office. If it must be admitted that 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 103 

this can scarcely be expected in fact — that the pul- 
pit must carefully abstain from coming into contact 
with the actual beating heart and life of the nation ; 
then it is an admission which it seems to me a sad 
necessity to be obliged to make.* 

Again : upon the educated men rests especially 
the duty of sustaining the cause of sound popular 
education, as well as all higher cultivation of letters, 
science and art. We must beware of leaving this great 
cause in the hands of mere politicians. The system 
of public instruction indispensable to the welfare of 
every nation, and eminently of ours, requires that 
moral and religious culture should never be separated 
from a wholesome and wisely adapted intellectual 
training. I have no faith in the mere Lord Brough- 
am " schoolmaster." He may be ever so much 
" abroad among the people/' and yet do the people 
as much harm as good. I have no faith in the mere 
diffusion of popular knowledge, as an adequate cul- 
ture of the people. The minds of the young should 
be trained, strengthened, formed into right habits, 
imbued with, right principles, with, the elements of 
future self-culture and self-guidance, — not merely 

* The present view (1860) on this point, to which the author 
has been led, is given at large in the subsequent piece on Politics 
and the Pulpit. 



104 POSITION AND DUTIES 

stuffed with a crude mass of superficial facts, mis- 
called " useful knowledge/' 

Above all I have no faith in the merely negative 
religious character of popular instruction. I regard 
it as one of the most monstrous solecisms that the 
popular education of a Christian nation should be 
organized — if not with an atheistic forgetfulness 
that there is a God, yet — with such a studied avoid- 
ance of almost every thing distinctively Christian. 
The political welfare of this country can be secured 
by no diffusion of mere knowledge. Edu cation — 
the education of the mass — must be thoroughly 
Christian. There is no country on the globe where 
the social virtue and political prosperity of the na- 
tion so entirely depend upon the intelligence of the 
people being pervaded by a deep sense of the old- 
fashioned Christianity which recognizes the Gracious 
Influences of God's most Holy Spirit, conferred 
upon the human race through Christ, as the only 
source of goodness in man, and the only sure safe- 
guard and support of pure morals and true national 
well-being. 

I have now, gentlemen, given (and very imper- 
fectly, I am sensible) some brief suggestions as to 
the position and duties of our educated class, in 



OF THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE COUNTRY. 105 

relation to some of the evils of our times, and more 
especially to some dangerous tendencies to which 
we are exposed. If these dangers exist, surely we 
shall neither diminish nor avoid them by shutting 
our eyes to the fact. Nor ought the full and frank 
statement of them to be stigmatized as the croaking 
notes of feeble alarmists despairing of the republic. 
Against all such reproaches I only stand up the 
more stoutly. I plant myself on the ground estab- 
lished by philosophy and by history ; and I deny 
that there is any thing in the human nature of the 
nineteenth century, or any charm in the frame of 
our government, which can ensure us against the 
fate that has fallen upon other nations. If, then, 
there are dangers to which we are exposed, the true 
practical wisdom is, neither to despise nor to exag- 
gerate them ; but to see, to admit — and to guard 
against them ; neither to rest in a vain confidence, 
nor to abandon the cause of our country as hopeless ; 
but to extend and quicken all those influences which 
we know assuredly can and will secure the perma- 
nent welfare and true glory of the nation. 

Let us not shrink, then, from our position. Let 
us manfully stand up for the truth. Democratic 
institutions have no intrinsic power to make us a 

wise and good, a truly and permanently happy peo- 
5* 



106 POSITION AND DUTIES 

pie. Kiches cannot do it. Diffusion of knowledge 
cannot do it. All these together cannot do it ; 
they cannot even ensure us against downfall and 
ruin. But there are things that can do it. Let 
the influence of Christianity really and practically 
control the political as well as the social life of the 
nation ; let the people exercise their rights from a 
pure sense of duty ; let there be a proportionable 
diffusion of the spiritual elements of national wel- 
fare ; in a word, with civilization let there be 
combined a proportionable cultuke founded upon 
Christianity ; and we shall certainly be not only a 
rich and great, but a wise, a good, and truly pros- 
perous nation. 

Here then, in the promotion of these great ob- 
jects, is the vocation of all good citizens, and emi- 
nently of the educated men of the country. Let 
those who belong to this class be true to their high 
calling, and by the favor of Almighty God we may 
indulge the noblest hopes for our country and for the 
great cause of Human Advancement. 



THE TRUE IDEA OF THE UNIVERSITY, AND ITS 

RELATION TO A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF 

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 



THE TRUE IDEA OP THE UNIVERSITY, AND 
ITS RELATION TO A COMPLETE SYSTEM 
OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 



Your Association, young gentlemen, is that of 
a Brotherhood of Scholars : but not a Brotherhood 
of Scholars united solely by the common bond of 
liberal culture and the love of good letters, but also 
by the finer and tenderer bond of your common 
relationship to the institution in which you received 
your intellectual nurture. It recognizes that as 
your Alma Mater — the benignant mother of your 
minds. The idea is a beautiful one ; and the senti- 
ment it inspires is not less beautiful. It is at once 
a filial as well as a fraternal sentiment that brings 
you together at this festival season of our Academic 
year. You come here as brothers, because nurs- 



110 THE UNIVERSITY : 

lings of the same fair mother. And though she is 
but a young mother, — scarce twenty years old, — she 
can already count by hundreds the children she has 
borne. Year by year, during nearly every year of 
her own existence, she has dismissed into the l c wide, 
wide world " a goodly band of sons brought forth 
and brought up by her. Some of them have not 
been long away from her fostering care — the younger 
brothers among you, the purple light of youth, the 
purjpureum lumen juventutis, still fresh upon them ; 
but others have been a good while gone, doing man- 
ly work in the service of their country and of man- 
kind, to their own honor and their mother's fair 
renown. She is about to send forth another band 
of her children, an accession to the ranks of your 
brotherhood. This is the occasion that brings you 
together now : and I hope the filial, no less than 
the fraternal sentiment, will be quickened and 
deepened by your reunion. For the strength of 
the parent's heart is in the children's duteous love. 
And your Alma Mater is that sort of mother that 
may live forever ; and however old in years she may 
become, and venerable for age, may yet flourish in 
perpetual youth, the fruitful mother of new bands 
of sons year by year to the end of time ; with a per- 
petual improvement, too, in the intellectual life and 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. Ill 

development and nurture which her children draw 
from her. That such may be her destiny is, I trust, 
with you, an object of earnest desire and of loving 
hope. But its accomplishment depends on cer- 
tain conditions, and I know not from what quarter 
these can so well be expected to be supplied as from 
your influence and exertions. For this reason, gen- 
tlemen, I have thought fit to occupy the hour of 
your meeting here to-night in presenting some con- 
siderations on the state of Higher Public Instruction 
in our country — its defects and needs, and the ob- 
stacles which stand in the way of realizing what 
every lover of good learning, and every enlightened 
lover of his country, and his race too, must desire 
to see among us — considerations which, I hope, 
may serve in some degree to give incitement and 
direction to your efforts for the prosperity and fair 
fame of your own Alma Mater, and for the advance- 
ment of the interests of Higher Education through- 
out the land. 

A complete and perfect system of Public Instruc- 
tion implies institutions for Primary, Secondary, 
and Higher Education. The Common School is for 
Primary ; the Academy (as it is called among us) 
is for Secondary ; and the College and University 



112 THE UNIVERSITY \ 

for Higher Instruction. The Common Schools 
should exist in every town and district in sufficient 
numbers to give to all the children of the common- 
wealth, of both sexes, the rudiments of necessary 
learning, the first elements of a sound education. 
The Academies are institutions where all those of 
either sex, whose condition allows, whose inclination 
prompts, or whose destination in life demands a 
greater degree of intellectual culture and a larger 
amount of knowledge than the Common School can 
give, may find the means of acquiring it. They 
should provide for imparting every thing included 
in the idea of what is familiarly called a good 
thorough English education, and also the Classical 
learning necessary to prepare young men for college. 
With the Academies I would also connect Normal 
instruction, or the training of persons for the special 
vocation of Teachers in the Common Schools or 
elsewhere. 

But of these institutions I shall not further 
speak. It is to the state of Higher Public In- 
struction that I wish specially to direct your 
thoughts. 

And to put the subject immediately before you, 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 113 

that you may see at once the scope and drift of my 
remarks, I will say at the outset, that we have in 
this country no Universities, and we need them : 
we have Colleges ; and they need to be reformed — 
subordinated to the Universities, and connected 
with the lower institutions in such a way as to form 
a complete and perfect system of public Instruc- 
tion. This, gentlemen, is what I wish to unfold 
and put in a clear light. I shall give you the re- 
sults of reflections that have, naturally enough, 
occupied my mind, from time to time, for many 
years : but I have greatly to regret that broken 
health and the pressure of many cares have not 
allowed me time to put the expression of them in 
such form and method as I could desire for this oc- 
casion. 

I have said, gentlemen, that in this country we 
have no Universities. We have not. We have 
the name, but not the thing. A University, in its 
proper notion, is an institution which affords every 
possible advantage for the perfect acquisition of 
every branch of science and learning included with- 
in the circle of liberal studies. It implies an assem- 
blage together in one place of all the conditions and 
means requisite for pursuing these studies to the 
utmost possible extent. It implies that any one 



114 THE UNIVEBSITY ! 

competent to enjoy its advantages, may find him- 
self surrounded at the University with all the aids 
and appliances needful or desirable for carrying out 
his studies to the highest point of perfection, in 
any direction throughout the whole sphere of science 
and letters. 

The University, gentlemen, is an organic whole ; 
and so, like every other organic whole, it must have 
its organizing principle, its determining idea : in 
virtue of which all the constituent parts find their 
title to admission, their place and their form ; from 
which they grow ; around which they group them- 
selves, and by which they are held together as one 
perfect whole. What is this constituent principle, 
this central idea ? It is a well organized body of 
learned and able men dispensing the highest instruc- 
tion in every branch of science and letters — not the 
meagre and superficial instruction which alone can 
possibly be given by one person undertaking all 
branches, or many branches, and who having of 
necessity only a smattering himself, can of course 
impart no more than a smattering to others ; but 
the profound and thorough instruction which can 
be given only by the members of a learned society 
numerous enough to carry the division of labor to 
the greatest desirable extent ; thus allowing each 



ITS TKUE IDEA AND BELATIONS. 115 

one, and making it each one's duty, to devote his 
best energies to the cultivation and perfectionment 
of his own department, and to the communication 
of the fruits of his studies in the clearest and best 
methods of exposition. Out of this well organized 
division and connection of labor, comes that perfec- 
tion in every part, and that completeness and unity 
of the whole, which makes the University what its 
name should import — a place where the universe of 
liberal studies is unfolded to the ingenuous mind in 
all the fulness and richness of its infinitely diversi- 
fied forms, and yet as one great harmonious whole 
of Truth, Beauty and Goodness. 

But there are also certain material conditions 
included in the notion of a University, because they 
are necessary to enable the members of the learned 
society to discharge their functions. These are 
buildings, lecture rooms, and especially libraries, ap- 
paratus, laboratories, and collections in nature and 
art — so ample and complete as to leave nothing 
wanting for the investigation and illustration of 
every department of science and letters, whether foi 
the use of those who dispense or those who receive 
instruction. 

Such, gentlemen, is the University in its true 
idea ; and I say again, that while we have the name 



116 THE UNIVERSITY : 

among us, we have not the thing. We have many- 
Colleges, and several institutions with the name of 
Universities, but which are in reality only Colleges. 
But a College neither is a University, nor can fulfil 
the function of a University. This is true, whether 
you look at the matter in a theoretical or a practi- 
cal way ; whether you consider what a College 
ought to be and to accomplish, or whether you 
consider what our Colleges, as they at present stand, 
actually do or are able to accomplish. In a theoreti- 
cal view, a College is an institution designed to 
form the generally well educated man without ref- 
erence to any particular destination in life ; to carry 
on the culture and discipline of the faculties gen- 
erally, already begun in the lower institutions — to 
carry it on to such an extent, and also to impart 
such an amount of liberal knowledge and accom- 
plishment, as will prepare the young man either for 
a dignified and useful position in cultivated social 
life, or for professional studies, or for that further, 
more extensive and profound study of the liberal 
arts and sciences in any special direction, for which 
it is the business of the University to provide. 
And so in theory a College is not and ought not to 
be a University. In the next place, in a practical 
view, our Colleges cannot, if they would, accomplish 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 117 

the proper functions of a University. They are 
none of them adequately provided, and most of them 
very slenderly provided, with the material condi- 
tions requisite for the profound and thorough study 
of all branches of science and letters — I mean libra- 
ries, apparatus, collections in nature and art. Nor 
less deficient in the personal conditions. In most 
of our Colleges there is only the Faculty of Science 
and Letters ; and the body of Professors is so small 
that it would not be possible for each Professor to 
give those extensive, complete and thorough courses 
of instruction which the idea of a University im- 
plies, in any one, much less in all, of the subjects 
which it is made his duty to teach. This, I say, 
would not be possible, even if he had nothing else 
to do. But he has something else to do. His time 
is fully employed in imparting comparatively ele- 
mentary instruction to immature young minds but 
partially prepared perhaps for the course of college 
studies. What advantages, then, do such institu- 
tions afford for carrying out the study of the whole 
circle of liberal arts and sciences to the utmost pos- 
sible limit ? None at all. In some of our Colleges 
there are Faculties of Medicine, Law and Theology. 
But this does not make them Universities. For the 
courses of instruction are organized in respect of 



118 THE UNIVERSITY : 

extent, time, division and other particulars, to meet 
the special and practical demands of professional 
preparation, rather than as parts of a University 
system : and even if this were not the case, what 
has been shown in regard to the Faculties of Science 
and Letters would still hold. And so it is obvious 
that our Colleges do not and cannot accomplish the 
functions of a University. 

That Universities are a need for this country, is 
a point, gentlemen, which I should feel ashamed to 
think it necessary to argue before you. We do not 
need a great many of them : but a certain number — 
amply supplied with all the material and personal 
conditions for realizing the true and noble idea of such 
institutions — we do need. Who can doubt they would 
have an influence that can be brought into action in no 
other way, in advancing the great interests of science 
and good letters — interests with which, I need not 
tell you, gentlemen, not only the intellectual and 
moral well-being, but even the material prosperity of 
the nation, are indissolubly bound up ? They would. 
Such institutions would be a glory and a blessing to 
the land. 

Supposing, then, Universities to be established, 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 119 

what shall be done with the Colleges ? Let them 
exist : let them, if need be ; be multiplied. For the 
College holds an indispensable and most important 
place in a perfect system of Public Instruction. 
It is the place for the liberal education of those who 
do not go to the University, and by means of the 
liberal education it imparts, it also prepares for the 
University those who wish to advance to the highest 
degrees of learning and science. No student should 
come to the University who is not prepared to 
profit by its advantages : and no one is prepared 
who has not already acquired the amount of mental 
discipline and of liberal knowledge which form the 
well-educated man. This it is the proper function 
of the College to impart. The College does not 
and cannot form men of profound science and learn- 
ing in every department of liberal studies. It does 
not make masters and doctors, competent to fill the 
Academic chairs of Universities or of Colleges, or 
to be in any sphere the great teachers of the world. 
This is not its function. It is the function of the 
University to do this. And on the othe*r hand, it 
is not the special function of the University to form 
the liberally educated young man — it takes him al- 
ready formed. The University is not the place 
to train and prepare the young man to think and 



120 THE UNIVERSITY ! 

to study for himself : but to take the young man al- 
ready prepared to think and to study ; and then to 
help him in thinking and studying for himself, 
and to carry him forward, by instructions more ex- 
tended, profound and diversified than the College 
can give, to the greatest possible perfectness of 
knowledge, whether in science or in learning. And 
the proper place, in a perfect system of Public In- 
struction, for the young man to gain the knowledge 
and the power to think and study which fit him for 
the University, is the College. In this view, and 
for those who go to the University, the College is 
subordinate to the University. But the College, in. 
its proper function, is not limited to preparing 
young men for the University. It is also to form 
well-educated men who do not go to the University. 
We need a certain number of profoundly learned 
men in every department of science and letters : 
eminent Masters and Doctors, great luminaries in 
the intellectual sphere. These the University is to 
make — that is to say, supply the best means, and 
all the means, for enabling them to make themselves. 
But we also need an immensely greater number of 
well-educated young men : men whose minds have 
been trained by a course of liberal studies sufficient- 
ly diversified, and carried to a sufficient extent, to 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 121 

ensure a vigorous and well-proportioned develop- 
ment of their faculties. These the College makes, 
or, as before, gives them the best help to making 
themselves ; and so does a work which the Univer- 
sity cannot do ; — I will not say a more or a less im- 
portant work than that which the University does ; 
for it is idle and foolish to draw a comparison be- 
tween the importance of two things, both of which 
are indispensable to the Commonwealth. 

Let there be Colleges, then ; and let them be 
sufficiently numerous to afford a place for all who 
seek a liberal education. But let them be reformed. 
Let them be made what they ought to be. Let 
them be conformed to their proper idea. Let them 
not attempt the functions of a University ; for, as 
we have seen, they cannot and ought not to fulfil 
them. Let them be places to give a really " liberal 
education " in the fine old scholarly meaning of the 
term. Let the course of studies be " liberal" studies. 
Let not the object be the acquisition of special 
knowledge for this or that particular destination in 
life. Let such special acquisitions come afterwards 
as any one may choose. Let the College course of 
undergraduate studies be mainly a discipline for 
the mind. Let it afford scope and means for the 



122 THE UNIVERSITY I 

freest, fullest and most harmonious development and 
culture of all the mental faculties, without refer- 
ence to any particular destination in life ; and for 
those acquisitions of knowledge and accomplish- 
ments of taste which form the true liberally educat 
ed man. And for this end, there is no conceivable 
organization of studies so well adapted as the good 
old-fashioned curriculum of classical, mathematical, 
logical, rhetorical and aesthetical studies. These 
studies, properly proportioned and thoroughly pur- 
sued, involve and secure the very best possible 
training of the mind. 

And this brings me to notice one of the great 
defects of our College system. Both too much and 
too little is done : and the consequence is that al- 
most nothing is done as it should be. The four years 
of undergraduate study is short time enough, in 
all reason, for accomplishing to any really good pur- 
pose the course I have mentioned, — even if the stu- 
dent comes from the Academy or Grammar School 
with a thorough preparation in elementary classical 
and mathematical learning, and with a considerable 
degree of culture and discipline of mind. And yet, 
into this four years, we have now crowded a multi- 
tude of additional studies — making a list almost as 
large and wonderful as that which lively young 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 123 

ladies accomplish, in the fashionable schools, where 
all languages and learning, all sciences and arts are 
learned in three years, and all the accomplishments 
besides ! And while thus crowding the course, we 
have at the same time, on the other hand, instead 
of raising the terms of admission, in practice often 
lowered them to almost nothing. What is the con- 
sequence ? Multitudes of young persons enter our 
Colleges without sufficient preparation, and some of 
them too young to be able to get it. They are unfit 
to go with profit through the course of classical and 
mathematical learning, even if it were not com- 
pressed and hurried through with, in order to make 
some time for the modern additional courses, which, 
in their turn, of necessity often are compressed into 
mere meagre and fruitless compends. Some, the 
older, or more earnest and diligent students, make 
the best of it — work nobly, gain something, which 
enables them to educate themselves after they leave 
liege : but the younger or more indolent drag 
heavily through the four years, — and leave College 
with " small Latin, less Greek/' and no living insight 
into the principles of Science ; with diplomas in 
their hands which they could not, some of them, for 
their lives, bear a creditable examination upon. 
Such is a strong picture (but I am sad to say, and 



124 THE UNIVERSITY : 

sure as sad, it is not an untrue one) of the wretched 
consequences that have come from attempting too 
much, and doing nothing thoroughly. And the 
remedy lies in a return to the proper idea and prop- 
er work of the College ; in discarding from the Col- 
lege curriculum those courses which properly be- 
long to the University or to the professional and 
practical schools ; and in establishing and adhering 
inexorably to a far, far higher standard of prepara- 
tion for admission ; in making a thorough mastery 
of the old liberal course a possibility and a reality, 
and so inspiring that true love for good learning 
which thorough learning always does inspire, and 
imparting that high discipline and fine culture 
which will be through life a source of pleasure and 
a source of power. 

Understand me, gentlemen, on one point. I 
have- no objection to all sorts of courses of practical 
instructions (as they are called) in the modern lan- 
guages, in physics, in the applications of science to 
the useful arts — in short, every thing which the spirit 
of the age and the wants of the times are said to 
demand ; I have no sort of objection to their being 
connected with our Colleges — provided two things : 
first, that such practical courses be, in their nature, 
either literary or scientific ; and second, that they 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 125 

be not crowded into the four years undergraduate 
course, but come after it, or one side of it. As to 
the first condition, there must be some limit : and 
if this be not the principle of limitation, you cannot 
have a limit unless an arbitrary one. There are 
various vocations in practical life which not only 
proceed upon scientific principles, but which also 
imply and demand a scientific knowledge of those 
principles on the part of those who follow them : 
such as Civil Engineering, Navigation, and the like. 
And to such studies you must limit these practical 
courses in our Colleges, else you must also have 
College lectures on the science of soap-making and 
calico printing, and every other useful art. Within 
this limit, such practical courses may well be ad- 
mitted into our Colleges, for the benefit of those who 
cannot go to the University to study the sciences 
and their applications from a purely scientific inter- 
est, and in the connection and extent in which they 
enter into the University system. But I insist on 
the other condition — that they be not crowded into 
the proper undergraduate course ; for that would 
be a detriment to both. The proper College course, 
the simply Academic course, is needful for the pure 
interests of science and good letters, needful to 
make scholars with the spirit of scholars, prepared 



126 THE UNIVERSITY *. 

for the University, and for social and public life ; 
and nothing should be crowded into it to impair its 
proper function. 

There is another point in which I would alter 
the practice of our Colleges. It is in the matter of 
degrees. I have said that the College does not and 
cannot form men of profound science and learning 
in every department of liberal studies. It is not 
the province of the College to make Masters and 
Doctors, competent to fill the Academic chairs of 
Universities and of Colleges, or. to be in any sphere 
of science and learning the great teachers of the 
world. That is the province of the University — so 
far, that is, as it depends on any institution to do 
it. Our Colleges now confer the title of Master and 
Doctor. But they cannot form the thing. The 
thing itself, the true Master, the true Doctor, the 
competent man to fill Academic chairs, or in any 
way to set up to instruct his fellow-men with any 
title to their deference as having something of just 
authority to teach — this, I say, the thing itself, of 
Master and Doctor, if it gets made at all in our 
country, is not made by the Colleges : it is self-made 
after the College has been gone through with and 
left behind. The very practice of our Colleges in 
conferring these degrees is an admission of this fact. 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 127 

They are mostly not given in course, but as honor- 
ary recognitions that men have made themselves 
what the College did not make them. This would 
be all very well, so long as we have no true Univer- 
sity, provided these titular distinctions were confer- 
red only where they are thoroughly deserved. But 
as it is, there is something laughable, and at the 
same time sadly degrading to high letters, in the 
way in which these honors are scattered broadcast 
over the land — and some of them without any regard 
to their special significance : — the title of Doctor 
of Laws, for instance^ lighting on the surprised head 
of some eminent political, literary, or other distin- 
guished personage who perhaps never in his life 
opened a book on the Canon or the Civil law ; who 
knows not, it may be, the distinction between them. 
He is made Doctor of Laws, because, being a lay- 
man, it would hardly do to make him a Doctor of 
Theology, or being a clergyman, the doctorate of 
Divinity is not thought quite sufficient for his years, 
his popular eminence, or the worldly importance of 
his parish. 

But let true Universities be established : and then 
let the Colleges be restricted from conferring any 
other degree than the Baccalaureate. Let all the 
others be University degrees. And let them all, 



128 THE UNIVERSITY : 

both in the College and in the University, be con- 
ferred only when fairly earned ; not as a matter of 
course after a certain attendance on the lecture 
room, as is too much the case now ; but only after 
a thorough and rigorous examination sustained in 
the special Faculty, be it Arts, Theology, Medicine, 
or Law, in which the degree is taken. Let the de- 
grees be taken, or in the old Academic language 
be "proceeded to/' not given as mere titles. Let* 
any man take them all, if he will study for them 
and earn them : but let no man have any of them 
upon any other condition. Let this be the rule — 
there may be occasions for special exceptions — but 
but let this be the rule : and then the title would 
be something more than an empty name. It would 
be a guarantee for the presence of the thing. It 
would have some weight, some authority. It would 
be a real honor, to be sought for and won and worn 
with honest pride, to the great benefit of all the in- 
terests of truth and good letters. 

Before dismissing the topic of the proper idea of 
the University, I will take occasion here to say a 
word as to a Theological Faculty. The great num- 
ber of distinct religious denominations that exist in 
our country, and the importance which each one 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 129 

naturally and justly attaches to the theological sys- 
tem by which it is distinguished, renders the estab- 
lishment of a University Faculty of Theology a 
matter of great practical difficulty. To avoid this 
difficulty, the organization of a Theological Faculty 
was expressly excluded from the plan of the New- 
York University. My learned and accomplished 
friend and predecessor, in his recent excellent 
tract on University education, proposes to avoid the 
difficulty in the same way.* But I cannot agree 
with him. A Faculty of Theology is as indispen- 
sable as any other Faculty to the idea of a com- 
plete University. The Science of Theology — to 
say nothing of its importance in its higher relig- 
ious and practical aspects — is, in the philosophical 
principles which underlie it, in its history, in its 
literature, in its relations with the civilization and 



* University Education, by H. P. Tappan. At the time this 
discourse was delivered, Professor Tappan was elected to the Chair 
which my broken health compelled me to resign ; and it was to me 
a matter of great joy that my place would be filled by one so 
eminently qualified to do honor to the institution, and to promote 
all the interests of true learning and science. He has since then 
accepted the office of Chancellor of the University of Michigan. 
May all success attend him. I may mention here that I learn from 
him that he has changed the opinion expressed in his tract, to which 
reference is made above, and has, on further reflection, come to the 
same view as that I have taken. 



130 THE UNIVERSITY : 

social culture of mankind, one of the most profound 
and profoundly interesting departments of human 
thought and knowledge. A University, in the 
proper sense of the term, without a Faculty of The- 
ology, is a thing that cannot be created. And 
rather than avoid the practical difficulty by mutilat- 
ing the true idea, I would attempt to realize the 
idea in the most comprehensive way : — by organiz- 
ing the Theological Faculty in sections sufficient^ 
numerous to meet all reasonable desire of the differ- 
ent religious denominations, so that the Faculty of 
Theology would in fact consist of several distinct 
Faculties, each substantially complete — allowing, 
if you please, each communion to have its special 
system represented in the University by a body of 
Professors of Theology, supported by its own endow- 
ment and appointed on its own nomination, subject 
to such limitations and common regulations as the 
University organization would make requisite. Stu- 
dents might then attend the lectures of either of the 
sections, or of several, or of all, according to their 
choice — degrees in Theology, however, depending 
only on passing the proper examinations in the 
complete course of some one section of the Faculty, 
whichever they should elect. In this way all objec- 
tions on the score of the University favoring one 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 131 

i 

religious system at the expense of the rest, would 
be avoided ; while the widest and freest scope would 
be given to the pursuit of Theological Science : and 
surely that man must have small confidence in his 
own creed who imagines the cause of truth would 
in any way suffer in the long run by such an organ- 
ization. 

Such, gentlemen, is my view of the needs of 
Higher Instruction among us : . the University 
created ; the Colleges reformed. Let this be done 
in the way I have sketched ; and then with the 
Common Schools and Academies, we shall have, 
and not till then shall we have, a complete system 
of Public Instruction. 

Now, gentlemen, to create and sustain such a 
system, we must, I think, look to the State. I 
know this suggestion will strike you as burdened 
with great difficulties — immense obstacles in getting 
the State to undertake the matter, and immense 
liabilities, if she should undertake it, that the true 
and noble idea, especially of the Higher Institu- 
tions, will be violated, impaired, or imperfectly 
realized, not only from incompetent legislation in 
the organization of the system, but from the perni- 



132 THE UNIVERSITY : 

cious influence of party politics in its administra- 
tion. In view of these liabilities of mischief, I 
should vastly prefer that the University should be 
entirely independent of the State ; that it should 
be established by the union of private individuals 
enlightened enough to conceive the true idea ; rich 
enough and liberal enough to provide the requisite 
material endowments ; and wise enough to leave the 
whole organization and administration in the hands 
of competent men versed in academic affairs, whose 
special profession and vocation it is to understand 
such matters. 

But, gentlemen, I must say that I think there 
is less to hope for in looking in this direction than 
to the State. And so to the State, it seems to me 
we must look, if anywhere. Besides, in a theoret- 
ical view, the State is the proper power to do this 
work — under the obligation of doing it rightly and 
well. It is the obligation of the State to provide a 
complete and perfect system of Public Instruction. 
The obligation is already partially recognized in 
the practice of this Commonwealth, as well as of 
many other States in the Union. Besides, the 
State is the only power able, in some respects, to 
do the work as it should be done. To create the 
University ; to perfect the Colleges ; and to organize 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 133 

them in connection with the primary and secondary- 
institutions into one great whole, such as the needs 
of the Commonwealth demand, such as the idea of 
a complete system of Public Instruction implies, 
is a public work, and can be well done only by the 
public power. 

These institutions, moreover, should be free. 
No charge for instruction should be made in any of 
them^ — no more in the University and in the College, 
than in the Common School. This is implied in 
the very idea of Public Instruction. To effect this, 
immense appropriations of money are needed. This 
is another point that must not be omitted in our 
view of the case. To create a great and true Uni- 
versity in this Commonwealth ; to perfect the organ- 
ization of the Colleges and Academies ; to increase 
their number, if need be ; and to give free instruc- 
tion in them all, would require millions of ex- 
- penditure. To establish in this City a great Uni- 
versity, such as ought to be established, requires a 
provision for the proper dignified support of at least 
fifty or sixty Professors. There are nearly a hun- 
dred and fifty in the University of Berlin. They 
must be supplied too with all the material condi- 
tions for their work : — buildings, libraries, appa- 
ratus, museums, and galleries of art, and the like. 



134 THE UNIVERSITY : 

I cannot put down the expenditure necessary to 
effect this at less than five millions. And several 
millions more would be required to perfect and 
complete the organization of the Colleges. In short, 
a complete system of Public Instruction requires 
an expenditure that can only be made by the 
State. 

But the State can do it. Eminently of the 
Public Will is it true that " where there is a Will 
there is a Way/' Let only the people of this State 
feel the importance of it to the glory and welfare 
of the Commonwealth, and what are ten millions ? 
what are twenty millions ? A tax so trifling as to 
press with scarcely a feather's weight on any one, 
would enable the State to command the amount, 
and in ten years repay it both principal and inter- 
est. Five millions to found a University in this 
City ! It sounds large : but in less than twice 
five years it might be saved from the needless 
and profligate expenditure of this most misgoverned 
town. 

The thing can be done if only the people will 
it. To lead them to will it is the great point. They 
have willed great public works of material utility 
for the public health and convenience, and for the 
increase of the public wealth. They need be made 



ITS TKUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 135 

see that there are spiritual utilities more important 
still to the best life and welfare of the Common- 
wealth. They need be made see that a great and 
perfect system of Public Instruction, though it do 
not reimburse its cost in the visible and tangible 
revenue of dollars, is a higher public interest than 
Croton Water Works and Erie Canals, which do ; 
that if it be a wise and politic thing in the public 
to create the one, it is even more so to create the 
other — -and far more noble and honorable and fitting 
to the glory of a magnanimous Commonwealth. 

To stir up the public mind in this matter, 
belongs eminently to the educated young men of 
the State. And you, gentlemen, if you enter at all 
into the greatness and nobleness of the idea ; if you 
appreciate its paramount importance to the interests 
of Science and Good Letters, to all the moral and 
all the material interests of the Commonwealth ; 
you will not be deterred by the difficulties that lie 
in the way from exerting the great influence which 
your liberal culture puts it in your power to wield, 
in forming the mind and guiding the will of the 
people of this great and rich State in a right direc- 
tion on this point. This is the practical purpose I 
have in view in this discourse. This is the great 
mission which I conclude my Academic life by in- 



136 THE UNIVERSITY *. 

voting you to undertake, and as far as in you lies, 
to accomplish. 

You will have great obstacles to overcome. I 
admit it. With a vast multitude of the mass of 
the people, there are probably not so much false 
views and positive hostilities to contend with, as 
the absence of all views, and all sense of the im- 
portance of any system of higher Public Instruc- 
tion. 

But the greatest and worst obstacles lie in the 
prevalence of false views and strong prejudices of 
various sorts among other classes. Of these let me 
sketch a few types. 

There is McCheese, the great provision dealer. 
He started in life scarcely more than able to write 
his name. He has made money. He is rapidly 
rolling up his plum. He turns up his nose in greasy 
contempt at the idea of taking his money to make 
learned men. What is the use of learning ? He 
has got on without it. He is opposed — not from 
any hatred of it as something of superior value which 
lie does not possess. For he knows of nothing of 
superior value to money. It has never entered his 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 137 

head that anybody else should be so foolish as to 
dream there was. It is simply a useless whim : 
and he is opposed to having his money taken for 
what is useless. All his brethren will equally op- 
pose you for the same reason. 

Then there is Gubbins, ex-Auctioneer, long 
enough retired upon his fortune to have, in the 
intervals of turtle and champagne, looked around 
him and found out that there are in society some 
men, particularly men of learning and science, who 
affect to think there are other things in the world 
entitled to deference besides the mere possessor of 
money. He has, perhaps, a dim suspicion they 
may be right. But, at all events, with the instinct 
of a proud but ignoble nature, he hates what he 
tries to despise. He will oppose any thing that 
puts his title to supreme deference in question. So 
will his brethren. 

There is, again, Fitzroy Cunningham, Esq., 
shrewd, clear-headed, clever ; with immense activity 
and versatility of mind, he has all his life been en- 
gaged in extensive and complicated transactions 
of trade and commerce — has amassed a more than 
princely wealth, which is still growing to greater 



138 THE UNIVERSITY I 

and greater expansion. With but a slender educa- 
tion, though perhaps at the ripe age of eighteen 
he took a college degree before he went into his 
father's counting house, yet he has, since then, 
made himself variously intelligent, acquired a vast 
amount of information of facts, events, men and 
things that have fallen under his observation in 
life — the kind of knowledge therefore he naturally 
holds in most respect. He lives in a splendid 
palace up town ; his wife drives out in a gorgeous 
equipage, and gives brilliant entertainments. But 
Fitzroy still keeps in his busy sphere, because he 
loves it and is proud of it, not merely for its wealth 
and the social consequence it brings, but for the 
various energies and keen activities it demands. 
He has little respect for learning and science in 
themselves. He has a certain respect for great law- 
yers, great politicians, and eminent public function- 
aries. But both he and they were made at the 
colleges (such as they are) in the slight degree in 
which they owe any thing to the college. Such 
institutions he is willing to " patronize " — perhaps 
be a trustee, if it gratifies his egotism : in which 
position he will regard the Faculty as in some sort 
in his employment, much on the footing of his 
upper clerks, (hardly that,) whom it is his office to 



TS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 139 

tell how to do their work, (landsmen teaching pi- 
lots how to steer,) and to get the maximum of work 
at the minimum of salary. But as to creating a 
great University, a great Society of Learned Men, 
with an ample public provision for their independ- 
ent and dignified support — a society to which he is 
to look up with deference, as the great ornament 
and glory of the city, a great light and benefaction 
to the nation — he has no idea of it. It is a project 
for making a great nest of dreamers and drones, 
entirely out of place amidst the splendid material 
and practical activities of the age. Be sure you 
cannot count on his help. He will not oppose you 
with the vulgar hatred of Gubbins ; but he will 
dismiss you with a serene, contemptuous disregard 
of your plan. So will his brethren. 

There is, besides, Quintus Queerleigh, able editor 
of the Daily Trumpet — politician, philanthropist, 
social reformer, believer in social progress, in divin- 
ity of the people, (except those who differ from 
him,) believer in every thing more than in the wis- 
dom of the Past. Clever man. Eeally able. Of 
manifold abilities. Can write. Can think, too. 
Says many wise and good things. Honest perhaps. 
So some think him. Great believer in himself, no 
doubt ; perhaps an honest believer in truth — that 



140 THE UNIVERSITY I 

which he thinks such. But not a learned man. A 
self-made man : with the one-sidedness that often 
belongs to such men. He has already in advance 
opposed you. He bloweth with. his Trumpet to the 
people, to warn them against you. He telleth them 
that Common Schools are for the people : Colleges 
and Universities are only to pamper the pride of 
the rich, the grinders of the faces of the people. 
He bloweth with his Trumpet against the legislators 
— warning them of the wrath of the people, if they 
take the people's money to build up or sustain 
aristocratic institutions, contrary to the Gospel of 
Progress which the Trumpet proclaimeth : " Peace 
on earth ; and every man's coat cut the same length 
with his neighbor's." " Useless institutions, too/' 
saith Queerleigh. " Look at me. Am not I an 
able editor, politician, social reformer, writer, think- 
er ? No college made me. I made myself. That 
is the way to make men." 

Foolish Queerleigh ! Foolish able editor ! Know- 
est thou not that there was a stuff in thee, and a 
spirit that has made thee an exception to the gen- 
eral rule ? Few men perhaps, with thy lack of ad- 
vantages, would make themselves as able as thou 
art. But with the advantages thou lackedst, many 
might. Besides, clever as thou art, able editor, 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 141 

writer, thinker, thou art not a learned man. No 
disgrace. How shouldst thou be ? The thing for 
thee to be ashamed of is, that thou shouldst decry 
what thou hast not. For, those who are both as 
able as thou art, and as learned as thou art not, have 
said and testified in many ways, from age to age, 
that learning, high learning and science, and the 
discipline that comes with them, are good things, 
and minister to the greater ability of the ablest of 
able men. Hadst thou started in thy career of life 
possessed of the manifold culture and accomplish- 
ment of a thoroughly educated man, thou mightest 
have beaten thy actual self as much as thou now 
beatest many a printer's apprentice with whom thou 
didst begin thy career. 

There is, too, Ptolemy Tongue-end — patriot, 
democrat, demagogue orator. He blows with his 
noisy breath a blast very much in unison with the 
Daily Trumpet. He " stumpeth " at Ward meet- 
ings. Unlike editor Queerleigh, he has no faith in 
the people, except in their gullibleness — no faith in 
any thing except the wisdom of buttering his bread 
with the people's money. So he blows any blast 
that he thinks may help him to the favor of the 
sovereign people. He getteth into the legislature, 



142 THE UNIVERSITY : 

and there opposes, with great wrath and noise, all 
grants to Colleges — calling them anti-democratic ; 
though he knows in his heart all the while that it is, 
of all things in the world, the most democratic, that 
the people should be taxed for the endowment of 
the highest institutions of learning, free to all, as are 
the Common Schools — that so the children of the 
people, out of the pockets of the rich, may receive 
an education that shall enable them to take their 
share in the great prizes of life. For nothing is 
more true than that the great prizes of life (other 
things being equal) are grasped by those who have 
the highest, most thorough and liberal education ; 
and without a great and perfect system of free Pub- 
lic Instruction, including the University and the 
Colleges, as well as the Common Schools, the chil- 
dren of the poor are, as a general rule, condemned 
to a hopeless disadvantage, in competition with the 
sons of the rich, in all the higher careers of life. 
There may be exceptional cases : but such must be 
the rule. This is so patent and palpable, it seems 
to me, to every man of common sense and common 
candor, that I have little patience with the false and 
stupid twaddle which hollow-hearted demagogues, 
like Tongue-end, or hopelessly wrong-headed able 
editors, like Queerleigh, are perpetually pouring 






ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 143 

into the ears of the unenlightened masses : putting 
the Common Schools and Colleges in opposition to 
each other — as if there was any contradiction be- 
tween them ; as if one was not as necessary as the 
other, as if every principle of that democracy they 
prate so about did not require that the State should 
provide, not only free primary instruction for all the 
children of the people, but also the highest instruc- 
tion for all such of the children of the people as de- 
sire to go onward and upward into the higher spheres 
of useful and honorable exertion. Gentlemen, you 
may boldly join issue with these praters. Expose 
the foolishness of their hackneyed cant. Keep on 
doing so : and in due time, if you persevere, you will 
certainly disabuse the public mind. Tongue-end 
will oppose you — till the people begin to think as 
he in his heart now thinks. Then you will have his 
noisy voice equally in favor of the Colleges, and of 
a great University endowed by the state. Then he 
will find out that such institutions are exceedingly 
democratic. As to Queerleigh, he will doubtless 
hold on blowing his Trumpet to the same tune he 
now does, until he comes of himself to a wiser 
mind. Of which, small hope. 

Such, gentlemen, are some types of the op- 



144 THE UNIVERSITY ! 

position you will encounter. Others might be 
sketched did time allow. Besides these there is 
another class of hostile influences, not directly op- 
posed to the creation of the University, but, in seve- 
ral respects, standing in the way of the full realiza- 
tion of its true idea. Of this sort is the party spirit 
of religious sectarianism — the odium theologicum — 
that bitterest of all hatreds ; and the meddling 
spirit of solemn incompetent mediocrity in high 
political and social places, thinking it has a special 
gift and vocation to busy itself in fostering the in- 
terests of learning and science, yet destitute of any 
true academic ideas ; and so meddling but to mar, 
and sure to oppose if not allowed to mar. All these 
things are against you. A formidable array. I ad- 
mit it. 

But, gentlemen, there is no reason to bate heart 
or hope. The work to which I invoke you is a great 
and noble work. Not without encouragement to reso- 
lute and patient labor. Tongue-end, and Queerleigh, 
and Cunningham, and Gubbins, and McCheese, are 
not all the people of the land. There are others — 
numerous in every class, especially among the more 
enlightened, whom your influence may hopefully 
reach. Truth and sound opinion need only zealous 
and resolute, and, above all, patient propagandists, 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 145 

and in time it will spread outward and downward — 
as all sound opinion, the world over, must and always 
does spread — through the great, honest, and well- 
disposed masses, who are ever ready, in heart and 
will, to give their support to whatsoever the glory 
and welfare of the commonwealth demands 

Supposing the University to be established on 
the footing I have suggested, there are certain ideas 
and principles relating to its administration — to 
the organization of the courses of instruction ; the 
constitution of the Faculties ; the filling of the 
Academic Chairs ; the source of Academic Honors ; 
the conferring of Degrees, and the principles, condi- 
tions, and modes of their bestowal — which are indis- 
pensable to the highest success and usefulness of such 
institutions, These I intended somewhat to have 
considered. There are certain notions and prac- 
tices, certain ways of thinking and feeling preva- 
lent amongst us on these points, which are utterly 
at variance with the true theory of a University — 
with all pure academic principles. These I intend- 
ed to have signalized. But the just treatment of 
these topics would require a discussion too protract- 
ed for this time. I had therefore better not now 

enter upon them. At some other time, and in 

7 



146 THE UNIVERSITY ; 

some other form, I may perhaps call your attention 
to them. 

I must now bring my remarks to a close. The 
circumstances in which I stand before you will, I 
trust, through your kindness, be allowed to justify 
a word of personal reference. For more than twelve 
years I have discharged the duties devolving upon 
my Professorship in this institution ; and you who 
have attended at my lecture room — as most of 
you have — know with what earnestness and zeal I 
have discharged them. These labors have been 
their own exceeding great reward. I have loved the 
work. I have tried to do your minds good. I be- 
lieve you think so too. I have enjoyed the good 
will of my- colleagues, and such a kindly apprecia- 
tion of my services on their part as leaves me noth- 
ing to desire on that score. These are convictions 
which I cherish more than it is worth while for me 
to attempt to express. 

It is not a light thing, therefore, for me to resign 
my place here. I had hoped that in the groves of 
Oakwood — in the beautiful retreat which, in the 
intervals of academic labor, has been my home for 
eighteen months, I might find such repose and in- 
vigoration for my overworn nerves as would enable 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 147 

me still to discharge the pleasant labors of my office. 
In that hope I am disappointed. The sentence of 
entire " rustication " has been passed upon me — 
and that in a worse than the academic sense of the 
term : for it is without limit of time. I bow to the 
decree of the doctors and, I will add, not irreverent- 
ly, to the will of God. And in taking leave of 
you and of my public labors, I beg you to accept 
the assurance of the lively interest I shall ever feel 
in your personal welfare and in the prosperity, en- 
largement, and fair renown of the institution which 
has been the scene of the labors of the best years of 
my life. A University in name, I hope through 
your resolute and persevering efforts it will become 
a University in the fullest reality of the thing — a 
glory and blessing to this city, to the nation, to 
mankind. God prosper the cause of science and 
good letters, of truth and human progress through- 
out the world. 

NOTE. 

Since the foregoing was delivered, I have further 
urged the need of a University, in an article contributed 
to the editorial columns of the New York Daily Times } 
June 22, 1854, in which I have said : 

"The time has come when a great and true University 



148 THE UNIVERSITY : 

has become a necessity for the country. ..... 

Even if such an institution were not of incalculable im- 
portance to the material prosperity of the nation — which 
it is — yet it is profoundly true, and a truth that should 
be profoundly felt in the great mind and heart of the 
people, that there are spiritual utilities derivable from the 
culture of high science and learning, more important to 
the best life and welfare of a great and rich common- 
wealth than all material utilities. 

We believe it to be within the scope of the constitu- 
tional powers of the General Government to establish a 
National University on the broadest foundations, and 
with the amplest endowments. But if there be a doubt 
about this, the people should remove the doubt by amend- 
ment of the Constitution. Such an institution would be 
a glory and a blessing to the nation and to mankind. 

The progress of our country in territory, 

in population, in wealth, is already wonderful, and is des- 
tined to go on to a still more wonderful extent. . . 
Thus groat as we are, and pre-eminently great as we are 
destined to be, in every element of material grandeur, 
shall we not have the distinction and the glory, and 
enjoy the exalting and conservative influences of possess- 
ing the greatest University in the world ? Why not ? 
The money it would cost is but a trifle — large as the 
amount would be and should be, yet but a trifle — com- 
pared with the honor and advantage it would bring." 

The establishment of a National University was an 



ITS TRUE IDEA AND RELATIONS. 149 

object to which Washington attached great importance. 
He seems to have had no doubt about the power of the 
General Government in the matter ; and how greatly he 
had the object at heart may be seen in the numerous ref- 
erences to it in his official communications, and in his pri- 
vate correspondence. I am glad to perceive that Irving 
has brought this point so clearly out in the last volume 
of his Life of Washington. 



CALIFORNIA : THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF ITS 
ACQUISITION. 



CALIFORNIA, 



At a time when the golden treasures of Cali- 
fornia are attracting nearly all regards and absorb- 
ing nearly all interest, it is important not to neg- 
lect other aspects of the case which are even more 
remarkable and wonderful. We propose, therefore, 
to touch (and our space will allow us to do scarcely 
more than barely touch) upon some of those con- 
siderations which go to show the immense results 
that seem destined to follow from our new territo- 
rial acquisitions on the Pacific. 

It is no ordinary position, that in which these 
acquisitions have placed us. It is a position of the 
deepest world-wide historical significance. It is so 
with reference to the peculiar relations which those 
new territories stand in to our nation and to the 

rest of the world. It is so with reference to all 

7* 



154 THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA : 

that constitutes the world's historical present, 
which, springing out of all the past, contains in it- 
self the mighty, unevolved, undisclosed future. Its 
significance is not so much in what we actually see 
to-day, as in what we know must come to pass, as 
the stream of the world's history goes broadening 
and deepening on in the ages to come. Its signifi- 
cance is in the fact that it contains the elements, 
the principles, the forces of a new centralization 
of the nations of the earth. It is the begin- 
ning of a great American epoch in the history of 
the world. Just as certainly as there was a period 
when Asia was historically the centre of the world ; 
and subsequently a period when Europe became so ; 
— just so certainly the acquisition of these territo- 
ries on the Pacific, seems destined to make our 
country the world's historical centre. Over the 
two oceans that wash our eastern and our western 
shores, Europe and Asia seem destined to reach 
forth their arms, to meet and shake hands with 
each other across our continent. We do not say 
we can predict with absolute certainty when and 
how far this is to be ; but we say that, in the pres- 
ent condition of the world, its civilization, its sci- 
ence, its arts, its commerce, its means of commu- 
nication — there are the conditions, the forces, which 



ITS HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE. 155 

have but to work naturally forward in tlie direction 
they are now working, and, in all human likelihood, 
this stupendous result must in due time come to 
be accomplished — a new historical centralization of 
the nations, and America the mediator between 
both sides of the old world. 

Just consider how the case stands. In the se- 
quel of a war, which it is not needful for us to 
characterize further than by saying that all unne- 
cessary wars are unjust wars — in the sequel of this 
war, we have gained an immense accession to our 
territories on the Pacific Ocean,* Our government 
now stretches across the whole breadth of the con- 
tinent from shore to shore, from the Atlantic con- 
necting us with Europe on the one side, to the Pa- 
cific connecting us with Asia on the other side ; and 
from the great chain of inland waters on the north, 
lying nearly on the furthest line of the temperate 
zone, to the tropical regions on the south — em- 
bracing an area nearly as large as all those states 
of Europe put together, which for more than a 
thousand years have been the centre of the civili- 
zation of the world. 

* As this sentence was printed in the American Review, the ac- 
quisition of this territory is said to have been gained " by fair pur- 
chase." The words were an interpolation by the editor, and ex- 
pressed an opinion I had carefully abstained from expressing. 



156 THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA . 

And how stands it with our nation, considered 
as the possessors, the occupiers of this vast terri- 
tory? In less than three-quarters of a century, 
within the memory of men now alive, we have 
grown from three millions of people to more than 
twenty millions ; and at the same rate of increase, 
many now alive may live to see us grown to a 
hundred and fifty millions. That immense region 
of our country which we have hitherto been accus- 
tomed to call the West — a term which has gone 
on constantly receding and extending in its appli- 
cation from the Ohio to the Missouri, and to the 
foot of the Kocky Mountains — that immense region 
has become full of life and of men ; innumerable 
steamboats swiftly meet and pass each other on the 
great rivers, where not long ago the solitary ark 
floated down the stream ; and all along their banks, 
where the hunter and the trapper but yesterday 
sought their game, great towns and cities have 
sprung up all astir with the multitudinous hum of 
men, and resounding with the din of labor and of 
traffic ; receiving and exchanging the products of 
a thousand millions of acres of those vast fertile 
plains, through which those mighty rivers flow — 
plains where the sturdy labor of ten thousand 
thousand strong-armed settlers has made the tall 



ITS HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE. 157 

prairie grass give place to waving fields of corn and 
wheat. 

But wliat has hitherto been our Great West, 
must cease to be so now. Our true West has 
passed over the Rocky Mountains, and lies along 
the shores of the Pacific from Oregon to California. 

And the question now arises, whether those vast 
territories are to be filled up rapidly with people, 
and to remain an integral part of our nation, stand- 
ing in a living social and political union with the 
States this side the Rocky Mountains ? Of this, 
we think there can be no doubt. As to the rapid 
settlement of the country, this seems likely to be 
secured by the golden attractions that are drawing 
thousands and thousands thither from the Atlantic 
shores, from all parts of our country and from other 
quarters of the world. 

But this alone, the mere filling up of the coun- 
try by settlers, going, even the great majority of 
them, from among ourselves, and carrying the spirit 
and the love of our institutions, and the desire to 
remain in political union with us ; this will not of 
itself be enough to make those territories a perma- 
nent integral portion of the United States, and to 
secure those stupendous, world-embracing historical 
consequences of which we have spoken. For if 



158 THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA : 

communication is to be maintained between the 
Atlantic and Pacific stores only by long voyages 
around Cape Horn, or even by the shorter route 
through a foreign state, across the Isthmus by Cha- 
gres to Panama, it seems scarcely possible that a 
permanent political union can be preserved. The 
action of our central government can scarcely in 
this way stretch itself to embrace and keep the 
whole in a true political connection. The great 
Rocky Mountains, and the deserts said to lie be- 
tween the two sides of the nation, will form a bar- 
rier to prevent the sense of oneness, the preserva- 
tion of national feeling, and of true social and po- 
litical union. But let the stupendous results of 
modern science be applied, let the great projected 
lines of railroad communication connect the two 
sides of the continent ; let the telegraphic wires elec- 
trically unite them ; and how different the case. 
Yet there is nothing impracticable in this ; nothing 
visionary ; nothing near so wonderful in the pros- 
pect of its speedy accomplishment as in what has al- 
ready been actually accomplished in the recent past. 
And there are causes, commercial and political, 
which are as sure to work out its steady accomplish- 
ment, as the sun is sure to rise and set. And how 
easily then, under God, is the problem solved of bind- 



ITS HISTOKICAL SIGNIFICANCE. 159 

ing and keeping together, in a living social and civil 
union, tlie eastern and the western shores of the 
continent. The Rocky Mountains, as to all practi- 
cal effect, will sink down. The barriers of time 
and space will be annihilated. The tide of emigra- 
tion, setting in from all parts of the country, can 
roll through the mountain passes ; and men can 
transport themselves from our eastern shores to set- 
tle on the Pacific in one-quarter of the time, and 
with one-tenth of the hardships that were involved 
in emigrating from New York to Ohio fifty years 
ago, or to the more western States even twenty 
years ago. Eepresentatives from Oregon and Cali- 
fornia can reach their seats in the Capitol more 
quickly and more easily than representatives came 
from New Hampshire once. Add to this the com- 
munication of thought, passing literally with the 
speed of lightning to and fro across the continent, 
and from the central seat of government to the re- 
motest points in the circuit of the nation ; and how 
different is the problem of binding together in a 
central union immense and remote states, from 
what it was in the time of the Eoman Empire. It 
took more days, and we do not know but we may 
say more weeks, for the central government of Rome 
to communicate with its remote provinces, even 



160 THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA I 

along the great military roads, (those prodigious 
monuments of Roman grandeur,) than it will take 
minutes to carry the action of our central govern- 
ment to the shores of the Pacific, and to any other 
remotest point in the nation. Add again to this 
the sameness of language, institutions, and laws, 
which will prevail throughout the States ; the ef- 
fect of the reserved sovereign rights of the several 
States in securing all local interests and satisfying 
all local sense of importance ; while, at the same 
time, membership in the Union secures innumera- 
ble advantages not otherwise attained, and gratifies 
the larger sense of national importance. Put these 
things together, and we do not see why, under God, 
we may not remain centrally united as a nation, 
though we grow to be fifty States and three hun- 
dred millions of people. The action of all histori- 
cal causes, political, social, commercial, seems to 
tend more clearly to this than to any contrary re- 
sult. We can see but one disturbing cause to cast 
the shadow of ill omen over these bright auguries, 
and that is in the institution of slavery in the 
Southern States, and in the hostile feelings it has 
engendered. But the smallness of the area where 
slavery exists, or ever can exist, as compared with 
the whole area of the country ; the diminished rel- 



ITS HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE. 161 

ative political importance of the South in the fu- 
ture great growth of population in the free States ; 
the increasing conviction in the slave States that 
slavery makes them poor, (a conviction which the 
contrast between the growth of the slaveholding 
and of the adjacent non-slaveholding States forces 
more and more strongly home ;) the importance of 
the Union to the South, equal at least to that of 
the South to the Union ; and finally, the progress 
of moral convictions on the subject in the South, 
and the predominance of wise and conciliating 
counsels at the North, will, we trust, under God, 
solve this problem without rupture, by the gradual 
ultimate dying out of slavery at the South, in the 
same way that it has died out at the North ; a re- 
sult which, we believe, would have already been 
substantially realized in the more northern slave- 
holding States, but for certain influences, coming 
partly from the lower South, and partly from the 
North, that have concurred to retard it. 

But however this may be, the question of slavery 
will not retard the rapid filling up of the country 
on the Pacific Ocean. The great lines of railroad 
communication will be made, and the telegraphic 
wires will be set up along the track. This may be 
held for certain. And the accomplishment of this 



162 THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA : 

vast, yet simple and altogether outward and physical 
result, is of profounder importance, and must be so 
regarded by every one who knows how to estimate 
events in their true historical significance, than all 
the revolutions in the States of Europe, which have 
made the year 1848 a year of wonders in the chron- 
icles of the world. 

Its effect will not be limited to the binding to- 
gether, in a true national union, the two sides of 
our continent. It must work a change in the whole 
commercial relations of the globe. The trade of 
China, and of a large portion of Asia, must find its 
way across the western ocean to our Pacific shores, 
building up great towns and cities there, and thence 
across the continent to the Atlantic coast, there to 
meet the trade of Europe coming over the Atlantic 
on its western route. And thus for Europe the old 
problem of a western passage to the Indies will be 
solved in a way that Columbus never dreamed of, 
when he set out to find it across the trackless, un- 
known seas. New York will thus lie within twenty- 
five days of China, and ten days of Europe ; and 
must become the great entrepot of the world. Thus 
we see how the connection between the eastern and 
western coasts of our continent, (which is certain, 
sooner or later, to be accomplished,) must change 
the commerce of the globe. 



ITS HISTOEICAL SIGNIFICANCE. 163 

And this change involves other changes, affect- 
ing the whole course and character of the history 
of humanity, social, political, and moral. This is a 
point that needs not be argued to any one familiar 
with the history of the world, and competent to 
appreciate the working of historical causes. Always 
the stream of the world's history has been drawn 
into the course of the great lines of commercial com- 
munication ; and this must be more than ever the 
case in the present and coming age. America must 
become the centre of the world ; and .that not in a 
merely physical or commercial way, but in a deeper, 
true historical sense — a sense not to gratify an over- 
weening national pride and vain-gloriousness, where- 
of we have already more than enough, but a sense 
full of momentous responsibilities, involving infinite 
possibilities of evil as well as good. 

Our country has entered on a new epoch in its 
history. From this year we take a new start in 
national development ; one that must, more than 
ever before, draw the world's history into the stream 
of ours. This enlargement of our own national 
sphere, takes place, too, remarkably enough, just 
at the time when the whole old-settled order of 
things in Europe is breaking up and passing forever 
away ; and the old world turns its eyes to the new 



164 THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA. 

with a sense never felt before, that its destiny is 
bound up with ours. The life of Europe seems des- 
tined also to pour itself upon our shores, as never 
in times past, and to help form that yet unformed 
national character which the coming age must de- 
termine for us. 

Now, for what purpose has the providence of 
God conducted our nation unconsciously through the 
events of the last three years, to the edge and pros- 
pect of such a stupendous, startling future ? 

We say # the providence of God ; and we say 
this, not as mere words of course — a customary 
phrase, without meaning. For as certainly as Di- 
vine Providence is recognized for a truth at all, it 
must be recognized that there are two elements in 
history, a Divine element as well as a human ele- 
ment ; that a Divine idea is ever realizing itself in 
the historical life of humanity, as truly as in the 
life of nature ; in the events of human history, as in 
the phenomena of the material world ; an idea not 
realized, nor to be apprehended, in the developments 
of a day or a year, but in the flow of generations 
and ages. The disciplinary education of the human 
race — this, we believe, is the divine idea that under- 
lies the whole history of the world. We have di- 
vine commentaries to this effect upon some of the 



ITS HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE. 165 

most significant portions of the history of the an- 
cient world. 

Herein is the great and peculiar interest of the 
most ancient historical records. They contain not 
only the authentication of the idea, but its authen- 
tic application to the course of events. They en- 
able us to see what otherwise we might not be able 
to see in any such determinate way. They disclose 
to us the providence of Grod^ interposing with a 
special moral purpose in events which, to all out- 
ward appearance, were the mere results of the 
ordinary laws of nature and of the working of ordi- 
nary historical causes. Behind the series of outward 
events we are made to see the Supreme Disposer 
touching the springs of human action, permitting 
or thwarting the outward results of men's free de- 
terminations, and swaying with absolute grasp the 
agencies of nature. And, beyond question, the 
great purpose for which these historical records, en- 
lightened by these divine commentaries, have come 
down to us, is to teach impressively, for all nations 
and for all times, the great truth that the Providence 
of God is the Gi-enius of Human History. If we had 
similar commentaries on the world's whole history, 
the same great truth which is so impressively taught 
in those records would doubtless be seen with equal 



166 THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA : 

clearness on the face of all the history of the world. 
If the records of all nations, in all ages, were ac- 
companied with like authentic interpretations, we 
should then see clearly the Divine as well as the 
human element in history. 

But none the less is it necessary to a right con- 
ception of history that we should recognize the idea 
of Divine Providence, even where we lack the clear, 
authentic application of the idea to the interpreta- 
tion of events. The mind and the hand of the Al- 
mighty, as well as the mind and the hand of man, 
have been in all the fates and fortunes of the nations 
— in the rise and fall of empires, the revolutions of 
dynasties, the wars and conquests, battles and sieges, 
negotiations and treaties, with which the pages of 
history are filled. Invisibly, in and behind the vis- 
ible procession of events, the Supreme Disposer has 
presided over the course of events which have made 
the last year* memorable in the annals of the old 
world and of the new. And we say it is He that 
has brought the course of history to one of those 
great epochs, when we cannot help looking both ways 
— backward on the past, and forward to the future. 
And though we may be quite unable to pronounce, 
in any determinate way, upon the Divine purpose 

* Written in 1849. 



ITS HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE. 167 

in regard to the coming period, yet still the ques- 
tion is one we cannot well help framing to ourselves, 
and one which, in the way of reasonable conjecture, 
and probable interpretation, we cannot well help 
attempting to answer. 

We have seen that all causes portend a new 
centralization of the nations ; and that our country 
seems destined in the coming age, to be the new 
historical centre of the earth — the mediator between 
both sides of the old world. And it seems no less 
clear that God intends to give here, on this conti- 
nent, a scope for human energies of thought and will, 
such as has never yet been seen since the days be- 
fore the flood ; to let here be seen the freest, widest, 
most diversified and powerful display of what man's 
science and skill can accomplish, in subduing the 
elements, in controlling and applying the tremen- 
dous forces of nature ; in overcoming and annihila- 
ting the old limitations of human endeavor ; in un- 
folding the physical resources of the earth ; in the 
creation of boundless wealth and a boundless sphere 
for action and enjoyment — a movement that shall 
draw the whole world around it and along with it 
in its gigantic march. 

All this seems portended in the coming age, and 
to an extent of which we can now probably frame 



168 THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA : 

no adequate conception. Forty years ago he who 
should have predicted the results that man's science 
and man's energy have now brought to pass, and 
made so familiar to us that we cease to wonder at 
them ; would have been laughed at for a madman. 
How do we know what new wonders man's science 
and man's energy are destined to bring to pass in the 
next forty years to come ? It is quite likely we 
should count him equally a fool who should describe 
to us what will be familiar matters of fact to our 
children. 

But here the great and solemn question springs 
up, is this boundless physical development to sub- 
serve the moral and spiritual perfectionment of man 
and of society ; or is it, on the contrary, to lead to 
a godless, self-willed, gigantic wickedness ? 

Of one thing we may be sure : no mere com- 
mercial and political centralization of the worlds 
can accomplish the true fraternization of the nations 
of the earth. It is not in mere forms of govern- 
ment, not in the fullest, world-wide development 
of democratic institutions, to save and regenerate 
the world. Men must learn to reverence something 
higher than money and themselves ; they must 
learn that the spirit of self-will is not the genius of 
true freedom. It is not in popular education, as it 



ITS HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE. 169 

is called — mere intellectual culture and the diffu- 
sion of knowledge. Men must be wise and good as 
well as sharp and knowing. No widest extension 
of suffrage, and largest posssesion of political rights ; 
no marvels of scientific discovery and application ; 
no increase of wealth ; no multiplication of the 
means and refinements of earthly enjoyment, can 
work the regeneration and perfection of the social 
state, and secure the permanent well-being of hu- 
manity. A godless self-willed world, armed with 
the more than gigantic powers over nature which 
modern science gives, may rear heaven-climbing 
towers, only in the end to be crushed in the fall of 
their own toppling erections. Nothing in the long 
run can save our country and the world from a fate 
worse than that of the old Titans — nothing but the 
living power embodied in the constitution of Chris- 
tianity permeating and sanctifying this prodigious 
material civilization. 

We say this not merely as Christians ; it goes 
upon a principle which no man can deny who is at 
all competent to estimate the historical causes of 
human progress, and upon a fact as undenied by any 
one, as it is undeniable. No competent historical 
philosopher but admits the principle, that the fates 

and fortunes of nations are determined, not merely 

8 



170 THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA : 

by material, but by moral causes — causes lying in 
the inmost mind and heart, in the character and 
spirit of the people ; and that, of all these causes 
the religious convictions and systems of a people, 
resting as they do upon one of the most deep-seated 
sentiments of human nature, are the most power- 
ful. Equally undeniable and undenied is the fact 
that Christianity, considered as a special constitu- 
tion of religion, not only has had an historical exist- 
ence for near two thousand years, but in nearly all 
that time has been one of the most significant facts 
in the history of the world. At the present mo- 
ment, it is the religious constitution prevailing 
throughout nearly the whole of the civilized por- 
tion of the earth. It is wrought more or less into 
the civil and social life, into the convictions and 
habits of our own nation, and of the nations of Eu- 
rope, into the course of whose history the rest of 
the world is destined to be drawn ; and no sane 
man can for a moment believe that it is to be su- 
perseded in the ages to come by any other special 
religious constitution. If there is to be any relig- 
ion in the coming age, it is to be the Christian re- 
ligion. 

Now what we have to say is, that if Christianity 
is to exist to any good purpose in the new and 



ITS HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE. 171 

grand career of development on which the world is 
entering, it must exist not as a mere formula, not 
as a mere outward institute, but as a true moral 
power, an organic life power in the historical life of 
the world. It must exist as a counteracting power 
to the naturally destructive tendencies resulting from 
any prodigious, unchecked overgrowth of the mere 
intellectual and physical elements in tha life of the 
people. Grandeur and wealth, luxury and corrup- 
tion, dissolution and ruin, this is the brief but accu- 
rate summary of the history of the extinct, but once 
most powerful empires of the ancient world ; and 
he has read history to but little purpose, and has 
but little competency to read it to any good purpose, 
who does not know that without some adequate 
conservative moral power, our national history will 
sooner or later be summed up in the same words. 
And we may safely challenge any man to deny that 
Christianity, in the proper working of its spirit and 
principles, is that adequate conservative power. We 
may safely challenge any man to imagine any other 
power which, either in its own nature, or in the like- 
lihood of its organic incorporation into modern civil- 
ization, can for one moment be regarded as equally 
adequate, or at all approaching to the solution of 
the problem of so permeating and sanctifying the 



172 THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA 



elements of high physical civilization, as to secure 
the permanent welfare and true perfection of the 
social state. 

We say Christianity, in the proper working of 
its spirit and principles ; for as a spiritual, a moral 
power, it can work only as it is let work ; it may 
be thwarted, resisted, perverted. Hence it is, that 
the history of Christianity enters into that which 
constitutes the deepest theme, the inmost sense of 
the world's whole history — the stuggle between good 
and evil. This we must bear in mind, or we can- 
not form a right historical appreciation of it. For 
eighteen hundred years it has been struggling with 
the powers of darkness and evil. And if it has not 
yet brought humanity to a state of social perfection, 
if it has not accomplished the social perfectionment 
of any nation where it has obtained a footing, one 
thing is undeniable : it has carried Christendom to 
a higher point of social and moral development than 
any nation of Pagan antiquity ever attained. To 
its power is due all that distinguishes modern civil- 
ization, all that makes it superior to the civiliza- 
tion of the Old World. This has been accomplish- 
ed in spite of the resistance which pride and self- 
will, and selfishness, and passion, oppose to its 
proper influence. 






ITS HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE. 173 

And during this time we have had a memorable 
demonstration, in a true historical way, of the futil- 
ity of all schemes for the perfection of the social 
state proceeding in a hostile repudiation of Chris- 
tianity. In the eighteenth century human reason, 
(as it called itself,) having plundered from sacred 
tradition every point and particle of truth and wis- 
dom, which made it wiser than human reason in 
the pagan ages of the world, saw fit to set up for 
itself, to proclaim its independence of divine instruc- 
tion. At this stage it did not announce itself in 
atheistic or immoral hostility to Christianity. It 
only talked of separating philosophy from theology, 
of vindicating for the former its proper province 
and rightful independence. But it did not stop 
here. It began before long to deny and belie the 
very source of all the light it had, and to arrogate 
its stolen treasures as its own discoveries and pos- 
sessions. And it went on philosophizing and phil- 
osophizing, until, in the end, it philosophized itself 
into the absolute denial of all spiritual truth ; till it 
announced, as the last and highest discoveries of hu- 
man wisdom, that there was no God, no difference 
of right and wrong ; that man was a machine, and 
death an eternal sleep. 

Then it set about the regeneration of humanity, 



174 THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA : 

the perfecting of the social state, the bringing in 
the "age of reason/' The French Eevolution was 
the practical result, and the fitting exposition of its 
labors. It demolished all the past ; and on the ba- 
sis of its grand negations — no God ; no right and 
wrong ; no spirit in man ; no life beyond the grave 
— it began re -constructing anew the social fabric, 
in which nothing was to be seen but universal broth- 
erhood, equality and social bliss. The golden age 
was to be no longer a fable and poetic dream ; the 
bright ideal of a perfect social state was to be real- 
ized. Humanity, disenthralled from the yoke of 
priestcraft and superstition, (to which all social 
evils had before been owing,) was to come forth re- 
generated and ennobled in the pure light and free 
air of reason. Man was to realize a godlike and 
divine life by the very act of scouting and denying 
every thing godlike and divine ! 

We know with what success the preposterous 
experiment was wrought out. We know what loath- 
some abortions this French philosophy, after driving 
God (as it thought) out of the world, brought 
forth. With the cant words of "liberty," " equal- 
ity," " fraternization," " age of reason," " human 
regeneration/' " universal brotherhood," on its lips, 
it made man a terror to himself, made society worse 



ITS HISTOKIOAL SIGNIFICANCE. 175 

than a cage of wild beasts, capable of inflicting a 
thousand-fold greater curses on itself than all the 
evils superstition ever wrought. 

Now, we ask, if herein it was not the purpose of 
Divine Providence to teach mankind a lesson never 
to be forgotten ? Has not that atheistic immoral 
philosophy, with its insane, blasphemous babblings, 
made itself known by its fruits ? Has it not shown, 
on a grand scale, how much it could do for the re- 
generation of the world ? And has it not become 
a hissing and a by-word, a stench in the nostrils of 
all coming time ? Did not God thus lead humani- 
ty some steps onward in that wild and terrible night 
of anarchy and storms ? He did. He did. Never 
again, we may believe, will such a scene be enacted 
on this world's theatre. Never such a regenera- 
tion of humanity again. Never again such a de- 
struction of the old spiritual and eternal foundations 
of social order, and such a re-construction of the 
social fabric on the basis of atheistic negations. The 
whole thing — the whole self-conceited, arrogant, 
jeering, profane, blasphemous thing — was first ex- 
posed in its infinite loathsome nakedness, and then 
exploded into infinite ineptitude and nothingness. 
But it has taught a great lesson. It has given an 
absolute demonstration of its futility and foolishness 



176 THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA : 

— an historical demonstration on the widest nation- 
al stage, with the whole world for spectators looking 
on ; to the end that mankind may henceforward 
forever point its finger and hiss at the stupid pro- 
ject of building up a perfect social state, by denying 
God, and reducing man to the level of the brutes. 
And that this lesson has been measurably learned, 
the new French Eevolution of the last year has 
given proof— in the fact not only that it proceeded 
upon no formal repudiation of Christian ideas, but 
that all the political movements socially destruc- 
tive in their nature, and having their root in a spirit 
really hostile to Christianity, have been beaten and 
put down, and their authors and abettors shown to 
stand in a minority altogether insignificant and 
powerless. Doubtless there has been little enough 
of the true religious spirit, in that series of rapid 
and startling political changes ; doubtless, more 
than enough of pride, self-will, selfish passion and 
the exaggerated sense of rights, without the sense 
of the duties they rest upon, imply, and impose ; 
but still the national spirit has displayed itself in 
no hostility to Christian ideas, in no insane attempt 
to build up the new civil and social order upon the 
destruction of Christian institutions. This is one 
of the most striking differences between this new 



ITS HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE. 177 

French Kevolution and the first one. And it is a 
lesson which the present age has learned from the 
past. 

But it is not enough for the coming age that 
this lesson be learned only in its negative side. Not 
enough that atheistic and immoral negations be no 
longer a fashionable creed. Not enough that Chris- 
tianity be acknowledged as a formula, and exist as 
a visible institute, deferentially recognized while 
practically disregarded or resisted. Yet here pre- 
cisely lies the danger to be apprehended. The spirit 
of the age is a spirit of hard woridliness and self- 
willed pride — not announcing itself in any theoretic 
rejection of the ideas of God and the divine consti- 
tution of religion, but in a disposition to resist and 
overbear the practical force of those ideas. The 
natural tendency of the prodigious multiplication 
of the material interests, of the prodigious extension 
of man's sphere of activity, and of the prodigious 
intensity of the outward life that is everywhere go- 
ing on, is to increase this spirit more and more. It 
may be quite willing to allow the ideas of God and 
his Church, provided it may shape and bend them 
after its own way. It may be quite willing even to 
let them stand as they announce themselves in 
Christianity, provided a respectful acknowledgment 



178 THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA I 

of them will answer in place of practical submission 
to them. But if they become troublesome — they 
must stand aside. 

Now, to this spirit Christianity must, of necessity, 
oppose itself ; and in the collision it must conquer 
— if it is to save itself and to save the world. It 
must pervade and sanctify, master and control, the 
spirit of our nation, and of the nations drawn into 
its course in the career of boundless wealth and 
power, on which we have entered ; or it cannot in 
any adequate way act as a countervailing, conserva- 
tive power against the destructive tendencies of such 
a prodigious development of the mere material ele- 
ments of civilization. It must gain the mastery, 
or be itself thrown off and crushed beneath the 
wheels of the mighty movement by which the world 
rushes on to destruction. 

For, let merely worldly-wise statesmen and 
pseudo-philosophers dream as they may, no paper 
constitutions, no bills of rights, no universal suffrage 
ballot-boxes, no progress of science, no diffusion of 
useful knowledge, no schemes of social organization - 
substituting checks and counter-checks of selfishness 
for the law of love, can work the regeneration of the 
social state, and make individual men live together 
as brethren ; and no political contrivances, no bal- 



ITS HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE. 179 

ance-of-power systems, no commercial relations, 
can effect the fraternization of the nations of the 
earth, and bring humanity up to a state of true 
social perfectionment, independently of those more 
purely moral influences which, if they come not 
from Christianity, cannot be looked for from any 
other source. We may get on after a sort ; we may 
get on for a long time to come ; but we cannot get 
well on in the best sense, and in the long run, unless 
Christianity becomes a true, living power, incorpo- 
rated into the social organization, and permeating 
the historical life of the world. Unless this, not 
only shall we never reach the true perfection of the 
social state, but we shall not continue to get on in 
the future as well as we are getting on now. We 
shall fall, shattered, from the heights up which we 
are urging our tremendous way. 

Our thoughts have carried us on to far conclu- 
sions ; but they are such as spring naturally from a 
consideration of the true historical significance of 
our new acquisitions on the Pacific — the immense 
consequences for our country and the world those 
acquisitions involve. And if our thoughts are at 
all just, the circumstances under which those terri- 
tories are destined to be filled rapidly up, makes 



180 THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA. 

the problem of our future fortunes as a nation in- 
finitely momentous. The foundations of new states, 
of a new social order, are being laid there What 
a hell upon earth, if the boundless lust of gold 
be unrestrained, unsanctified by better influences ! 
Pandemonium was built of molten gold. By the 
immense significance/ the world-embracing issues 
that depend on the settlement of that land ; by 
every pulse that beats for our country's true glory 
and the world's true welfare, should we endeavor to 
pour the highest and purest moral influences into 
the new-forming life that is to spring up on those 
shores. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD THE GENIUS OF HUMAN 
HISTORY. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD THE GENIUS OF 
HUMAN HISTORY. 



Eueope is again the theatre of war* — a war of 
which no one can foresee the end or the consequences. 
It may be a brief struggle, involving only the pow- 
ers now standing in actual belligerent position, and 
ending in a substantial return to the previous state 
of things. It may be a prolonged contest, drawing 
into it all the powers of Europe, arousing a series 
of revolutionary struggles in Poland, Hungary, Italy, 
and Germany, and terminating in a vast reconstruc- 
tion of the political map. It may lead to the over- 
throw of the Turkish Empire, to its absorption into 
the overgrown power of Russia, or to its partition 
among several powers. It may lead to the restora- 

* Written during the Crimean campaign. 



184 THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD 

tion of the old Greek Empire, with consequences of 
momentous import to the Eastern Church and to 
the re-establishment of the old Unity of the Church 
Universal. The Almighty alone can see the end 
from the beginning. We shall not busy ourselves 
with political speculations and prophecies which 
time may make foolish. Our purpose is to improve 
this fitting occasion of recalling men's minds to the 
consideration of certain great principles much left 
out of view, but which, if the Bible be true, lie at 
the foundation of the philosophy of history, and 
which every genuine historical philosopher must 
recognize, not merely as a believer in the Bible, but 
because they are principles of historical philosophy. 
A very considerable portion of the Old Sacred 
Books is taken up with records of civil and political 
events pertaining to the Jewish nation, and to other 
nations standing in historical relations with the 
Jews. But these sacred records are distinguished 
from all other historical documents in two respects : 
first, they were written under the divine direction 
and guidance — were traced as it were by the finger 
of the Most High ; and so we have a guaranty for 
the truth and accuracy of all the matters of fact re- 
corded in them, such as we have not in any othei 
histories ; and secondly, they contain Divine Com- 



THE GENIUS OF HUMAN HISTORY. 185 

mentaries on those matters of historical fact, such 
as no other histories contain. On the first of these 
point s, it is not our design to dwell. For the pur- 
pose we have now in view, it may be conceded that 
the records of profane history are sufficiently accu- 
rate in all the leading facts they relate. But the 
second point, namely — that the sacred books give 
us Divine Commentaries on the events they record 
— this is the grand and most important peculiarity 
by which the Holy Scriptures are distinguished from 
all other historical documents. 

Uninspired histories do not indeed limit them- 
selves to a bare recital of those external events which 
mark the rise and progress, the decline and fall of 
nations. On the contrary, historical philosophy (as 
it is called) attempts to give us commentaries— to 
explain the interior causes and consequences by 
which events are linked together in their outward 
and visible procession — to give us, in short, the inner 
spirit and life of history, that from which external 
events derive their whole significance and worth. 

But this historical philosophy is merely human, 
not divine. And it is entirely incompetent to a 
complete solution of the problem it attempts to solve. 
The history of the world is the joint product of two 
agencies : the one human, the other divine — the one 
the will of man, the other the Providence of Grod. 



186 THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD 

Now when philosophical historians undertake to 
explain the course of national events by referring 
them merely to human agencies, their explanations 
must be not only defective but erroneous — defective, 
because they leave altogether out of view one great 
side of their subject, the Providence of Grod, namely, 
and its influence and purport ; erroneous, because 
they cannot rightly explain the one without the 
other ; they cannot interpret the human element 
in history without a recognition of the element that 
is divine. In point of truth, the idea of Divine 
Providence is the primal idea, the dominant or mas- 
ter idea, and contains in itself the key to the inter- 
pretation of the world's history, both in respect of 
its human element as well as of the element that is 
divine. 

And even when historical philosophers recognize 
both elements ; when they attempt to explain both 
the agency of man and the Providence of God in 
the course of events, we can never be sure their in- 
terpretation is correct. Human insight is limited 
and fallible. They may be mistaken in their ap- 
preciation of the human agencies by which the 
events of history are to be explained ; and they are 
still more liable to be mistaken in their apprecia- 
tion of the divine element, the Providence of Grod. 



THE GENIUS OF HUMAN HISTORY. 187 

They may recognize the idea of Divine Providence 
as being even the primal idea for the solution of the 
world's history, and yet they may fail in the actual 
application of the idea. Attempts at a true expla- 
nation of events — reasonable conjectures — probable 
interpretations, — this seems to be nearly all that 
historical philosophy, mere human insight, unaided 
by divine instruction, can achieve. 

This, then, is the pre-eminent distinction of the 
sacred historical records. They not only show us 
the visible procession of outward events, but they 
give us divinely inspired commentaries which cor- 
rectly interpret to us the whole interior connection, 
the moral causes and consequences, the true char- 
acter and purport of the events they record. 

Look at the civil and political events recorded 
in the Holy Scriptures, and see what a different as- 
pect they wear in the light of these divine commen- 
taries, from what they would have to the view of 
mere human historical philosophy. What is it that 
stands out most clearly and impressively in these 
sacred disclosures ? It is, in the first place, the 
perpetual intervention of Grod in the course of events, 
and in the second place, a constant apportionment 
of national destiny according to national character 
and conduct. Of these two points the sacred books 



188 THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD 

are full of illustrations ; and the time would fail for 
the barest reference to the tenth part of them. 
Sometimes the intervention of God was immediate 
and visible, miraculous and supernatural — as in the 
multitude of signs and wonders that marked the de- 
liverance of the Israelites from Egypt, their guid- 
ance through the desert, and their establishment in 
Palestine. Sometimes it was in the control of the 
secondary agencies of nature, working, to all out- 
ward appearance, according to their ordinary and 
familiar laws, and in overruling the consequences 
and results of the free actions of men. And this is 
the kind of divine intervention which it is most to 
our purpose to observe. For here the inspired com- 
mentaries enable us to see what otherwise we could 
not see. Behind the series of external events, 
which in their mere outward and visible procession 
appear to be simply the result of ordinary historical 
causes, we see the hand of the Almighty Sovereign 
of the universe, now touching the springs of human 
action, now permitting or now thwarting the out- 
ward results of the free will of his creatures, and 
as to the mere physical agencies of nature swaying 
them with irresistible grasp. 

To take an instance or two out of a multitude 
that go to illustrate what we mean. In the latter 



THE GENIUS OF HUMAN HISTORY. 189 

part of the reign of David, a pestilence broke out 
among the people, and in three days' time carried 
off seventy thousand men ; when it suddenly and 
entirely ceased. Now what could mere ordinary 
history-writers make out of this, except to record 
it as a very remarkable event ; or, at the utmost, 
try to make themselves wise by queries and specu- 
lations about the physical causes of such a fatal 
disease so suddenly springing up, and so suddenly 
dying out ? Yet in the light of the Divine Com- 
mentary contained in the inspired record, we have 
the explanation of it as an intervention of God, for 
the discipline of the nation. 

Again : In the book of Daniel we have an ac- 
count of Nebuchadnezzar's seven years' insanity 
— during which he was driven from his throne, 
" and from men," (either as it was in reality or as 
appeared to him,) " and did eat grass as the oxen ; 
and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till 
his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his 
nails like birds' claws." What would ordinary his- 
tory do with this case, but merely put it down as a 
remarkable case of insanity, or talk learnedly about 
the predisposing and exciting causes of this great 
monarch's mental alienation ? Yet the inspired 
commentary teaches us it was a special interven- 



190 THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD 

tion of the Most High — a judgment upon the king 
for the greatness of his pride — a moral discipline 
to teach him " that the Most High ruleth in the 
kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He 
will." And we are told that it had this effect, — 
that it humbled him, and led him to recognize, " to 
praise and honor Him that liveth forever, whose 
dominion is an everlasting dominion, and whose 
kingdom is from generation to generation — before 
"Whom all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed 
as nothing — Whose works are truth, and Whose 
ways are judgment ; and Who is able to abase those 
that walk in pride/' And so once more : take the 
case of Herod, recorded in the Acts of the Apos- 
tles. This haughty king was smitten with a loath- 
some disease, and died miserably from being filled 
and eaten up with worms. The shocking fact is 
all that mere human history could record, and 
some medical theory, some nosological disquisition 
concerning the nature and cause of the disease, are 
all that merely human philosophy could contribute 
in explanation of the fact. But the divine com- 
mentary teaches us that it was because of the pride 
with which he received godlike honors from men, 
and "gave not the glory to God," to whom alone 
it is due. 



THE GENIUS OF HUMAN HISTORY. 191 

These are cases in which the inspired word dis- 
closes to us the Providence of God, interposing, 
with a special moral purpose, in events which to all 
outward appearance are the mere results of the or- 
dinary laws of nature. We have taken them not 
because they are the most striking, but simply be- 
cause they are cases that stand singly, and could 
be briefly stated. 

But to see this truth — the providential inter- 
vention of God in the affairs of men, and the moral 
principle of it in all its fulness and impressiveness, 
we must not take such merely isolated cases, we 
must go attentively through the whole divine rec- 
ord of the history of the Jewish nation. There we 
see the Most High disclosed — constantly interven- 
ing — constantly working in and behind the visible 
procession of outward events — through all the al- 
ternations of their disasters and successes — their 
two captivities and restorations down to their final 
subjugation and extinction as a nation. There we 
have the history of a nation's rise and progress, de- 
cline and fall, such as no other document records. 
We have not only events — but their true explana- 
tion. We see that the Providence of God is the 
key to the story of their fates and fortunes as a na- 
tion ; and we see the application of that key to the 



192 THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD 

explanation of all the significant events in the se- 
ries. We see, too ; that their national destiny is 
made dependent, under Providence, upon their na- 
tional conduct. 

And it is to be observed, too, that this people 
not only brought their various national calamities 
upon themselves, but all in the most ordinary and 
natural way. There was nothing miraculous, noth- 
ing even strange or out of the ordinary course of 
human causes and effects, in the way in which they 
were subjugated by their enemies, oppressed, car- 
ried captive, and finally extinguished as a nation. 
And if we had not these divine commentaries, we 
should not find, in the mere outward historical 
events of Jewish history, any more reason for re- 
ferring the rise and progress, the decline and fall of 
this nation to the continual intervention and over- 
ruling Providence of God, than in the history of 
the Macedonian or the Koman empires. It is pre- 
cisely and solely because we have the special light 
of divine revelation, that we see the Hand of the 
Most High in the historical records of the sacred 
books in a way in which we do not see it in the 
records of the history of the world at large. 

And now the question that comes up is this : 
For what purpose is it that we have -these divine 



THE GENIUS OF HUMAN HISTORY. 193 

commentaries ? Is it merely to gratify our cu- 
riosity ? Or, is it to teach us a great practical 
lesson ? Is the truth which these divine commen- 
taries disclose, a truth only with relation to the 
Jewish and other nations whose records we find in 
the sacred books ? Or, is it a truth, which is true 
for all nations and all times ? That is the ques- 
tion : and we say that the very purpose for which 
these historical details and these divine commenta- 
ries are handed down to us, is to teach impressively 
for all nations and for all times, this great truth : 
— that the Providence of God is the Genius of hu- 
man history — that the hand of the Almighty Kuler 
of the universe is upon all the nations of the earth, 
and that He everywhere apportions national destiny 
according to national character. If we had divine 
commentaries on the world's whole history, such as 
we have on that portion of it contained in the sa- 
cred records, then the same truth, which is so im- 
pressively taught in those records, would appear 
with equal clearness on the face of all the history 
of the world. We should see the right hand of the 
Almighty in all the fates and fortunes of all the 
nations of the earth — in the revolutions of dynas- 
ties, the rise and fall of empires, the wars and con- 
quests, battles and sieges, famines and pestilences, 



194 THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD 

negotiations and treaties, with which the pages of 
history are filled. We should see it in the reports 
that come to us weekly across the ocean, and fill 
the newspapers of our eventful day. We should 
see the Hand of the Almighty and the purpose of 
the Almighty throughout the momentous struggle 
that has begun in Europe. We should have not 
only the events, but their true historical character, 
their moral significance, their causes and conse- 
quences set before us in a way that would put to 
shame the wisdom of diplomatists and statesmen, 
and turn into empty and foolish pratings the com- 
mentaries of the public press. 

But because we have not these divine commen- 
taries on the whole of the world's history, shall we 
any the less believe the great truth which the sa- 
cred records teach ? Because the light of special 
inspiration does not make visible the hand of the 
Almighty moving in and behind the visible pro- 
cession of events, shall we any the less believe His 
hand is there at work ? No : we are as much 
bound to believe this great truth is true for every 
nation on the earth as for the ancient nations, of 
whom it is expressly declared in the sacred books. 
We are as much bound in reason to believe it true 
in reference to the great drama of political history, 



THE GENIUS OF HUMAN HISTORY. 195 

that now seems opening on the earth, as though we 
saw it supernaturally written by the finger of the 
Almighty, in characters of fire, on the earth and 
on the sky, on the hills and on the clouds. 

And finally, we are not to believe that this di- 
vine interposition is merely for the sake of inter- 
position, nor merely in the way of retributive judg- 
ment on the nations. The Almighty presides over 
the fates and fortunes of the nations, each in their 
successive epochs, with a great purpose which con- 
nects each with each in the flow of the great ages ; 
with a comprehensive idea to be realized in the 
whole Historical Life of Humanity, and in the 
whole History of the Universe. 



YOUIG AMERICA-THE TRUE IDEA OF PROGRESS. 



YOUNG AMERICA— THE . TRUE IDEA OF 
PROGRESS. 



The phrase " Young America/' lias become one 
of frequent utterance among us. The wise will not 
regard it merely as a phrase, — merely as desig- 
nating a certain number of ardent young men, or 
a certain number of persons, either old or young. 
It is a great deal more. It involves ideas, thoughts, 
sentiments, instincts, and practical tendencies of 
the gravest significance in the political and social 
sphere. It will not do either to ignore it or to 
scout it. It suggests something to be well consid- 
ered by calm and thinking men. It imposes on 
them a duty which must not be neglected until too 
late. What is working obscurely, unreflectingly, 
in the mind and heart of the age, should be ana- 
lyzed and made clear. What is right, noble, and 
salutary in it, should be accepted, greeted, entered 



200 YOUNG AMERICA : 

into with hearty sympathy. What is superficial, 
mistaken, dangerous, should be signalized, rectified, 
guarded against. All honor to noble impulses, 
while we watch against every thing that may de- 
feat or mar the great objects to which they prompt. 
The Idea of a Perfect Social State is a neces- 
sity for the human reason. It is one that more or 
less obscurely possesses all minds ; but over all the 
nobler, more earnest and generous minds it exerts 
a powerful domination. Whether or not it is in 
the purposes of that Divine Providence, which is 
the Genius of Human History, that this idea shall 
ever be realized in the actual condition of the hu- 
man race, we shall not undertake to determine. 
On the one hand, it is not absolutely necessary ; 
men may successfully solve the problem of their 
own individual destination in a very imperfect state 
of society. But, on the other hand, to believe in 
it, to desire it, to hope for it, is the impulse and 
necessity of all the better and loftier spirits among 
men. To work towards its accomplishment is the 
duty of every man. So far as Young America 
means the feeling of this idea, the stirring of this 
impulse, it is a noble and sacred thing. Herein 
lies the only ground for any thing respectable in 
another word much heard among us — the word 



THE TRUE IDEA OF PROGRESS. 201 

Progress. Mere progress in itself, mere going for- 
ward, without regard to the end to be reached, is 
not any thing admirable. It may be something 
very terrible. Make any word a watchword, stirring 
with electric thrill the hearts of unreflecting masses, 
and rousing them to action, and you do a thing 
which in its nature and results should be well con- 
sidered beforehand. 

Young America is antagonistic. It opposes it- 
self to what it calls " Old Fogyism." What is 
that ? Is it a dogged adherence to old abuses ? 
A dread and dislike of all changes ? An inability 
to see any remedy for present evils but in a return 
to the past ? Doubtless, as against such a spirit, 
Young America is in the right. It is the natural 
reaction against it. Old Fogyism forgets that the 
past can never be reproduced on the scene of the 
present. If it could be, its resurrection would be 
any thing but desirable. It would be out of place, 
out of keeping — not benignant. 

But Young America needs guard itself, lest it 
go (as every reaction tends to go) too far. It must 
not be ignorant of the past, nor despise it, much 
less hate it. The spirit of true progress is an or- 
ganizing, not a destroying spirit. It is a spirit of 

love, not of hatred. It is wise and reverent, not 
9* 



202 YOUNG AMERICA : 

ignorant and arrogant. Only out of a profound 
knowledge of the past, and a deep sense of the 
wisdom of its lessons, can come the right guidance 
that shall safely conduct society onwards to a bet- 
ter future. Human history proceeds according to 
living, not mechanical laws. Political and social 
ameliorations can never be accomplished by destroy- 
ing, by pulling down the old, even in order to the 
reconstruction of something new and better. It is 
not an affair of destruction and reconstruction. It 
is a growth. It is mainly an affair of unfolding — 
the result of the mutual counterworking of forces 
which are vital, not dead. The old historical life 
of humanity must not be regarded as standing in 
no relations, much less in relations purely hostile, to 
the life of the present. The life of the future must 
be the continuation of the life of the past — invig- 
orated, purified, it is to be hoped, and unfolding it- 
self in new and fresh forms. Young America, 
therefore, in a wise and right-hearted fealty to its 
mission, will not fall into the error of setting itself 
in hostility to the past, as if it were something to 
be hated, crushed, extinguished. It will not arro- 
gantly claim, as its own exclusive creation, all the 
germs of true progress it discerns. It will remem- 
ber that the great heart of humanity has beaten 



THE TRUE IDEA OF PROGRESS. 203 

the same in every age. Every age has had its side 
of true and right, as well as its side of error and 
wrong. No age has been all right, or all wrong. 
Young America must not presume itself an excep- 
tion to the universal law. It must not take for 
granted that it is all right, and every thing else all 
wrong. It must not imagine there is no truth any- 
where in the universe but in its own possession ; 
that there is no possibility of its falling into one- 
sidedness, exaggeration, error — and that through 
the very intensity with which it finds itself pos- 
sessed by the great idea of the age, and the very 
strength of the impulse which leads it to protest 
against all that seems to stand in opposition to it. 
It must learn to recognize the element of truth, 
and the element of error, which, in their blending, 
and in their mutual counteraction, go to constitute 
the actual life — the inner spirit of every historical 
epoch, no less of the present than of the past ; for 
herein precisely lie the conditions of the true pro- 
gress of humanity. 

Young America must therefore beware of the 
dangers incident to every noble attempt to give 
reality to great political and social ideas. Ques- 
tions of political and social amelioration are emi- 
nently practical ; and there is not one lesson which 



204 YOUNG AMERICA : 

history enforces with such tremendous emphasis as 
the peril of proceeding in ignorance or in disregard 
of this truth. Push an abstract idea out with 
reckless absoluteness into practical application ; 
ally it (as in such a case it will most surely come 
to be allied) with the frantic fanaticism of human 
passions — and you may produce a Keign of Terror, 
but you will inaugurate no Age of Keason. " The 
eternal principle of Liberty made man, seeking to 
incarnate itself in the world by the Eepublic ! " — 
this is what Young America proclaims itself to be. 
How much that is glorious in idea ; how much that 
is also terrible in possibilities of evil, these words 
contain ! Let Young America guard against the 
perversion of the idea of Liberty. Let it beware 
of Political Absolutism. Let it remember that no 
Absolutism, democratic any more than monarchic, 
is safe — that political liberty is not the absolute 
supremacy of mere will. The Almighty claims no 
such supremacy. 

Let it be remembered that politics — the science 
of organizing and directing the powers of society 
for the greatest good of all, is eminently a practical 
science. It is a science of expediency. All its de- 
terminations rest on the practical consideration of 
consequences — provided always, of course, that 



THE TRUE IDEA OF PROGRESS. 205 

they do not contradict the eternal principles of jus- 
tice. That is best in politics (however it may look 
in the abstract) which actually works best ; which 
best secures the true freedom, the just rights and 
the real well-being of a nation. To uproot what 
works well, merely to replace it with something 
more theoretically perfect, is far from being always 
wise. 

There is another thing to be avoided. Ques- 
tions of economical policy are not questions of po- 
litical principle, and should never be confounded 
with them, still less should the passions and preju- 
dices of the people be enlisted for or against them 
by any such misuse of words as puts them in the 
same category with the great and sacred principles 
of right and justice. For instance : the question 
of Free Trade is purely economical. It has no 
more to do with the question of political freedom, 
than the question of gas or oil in street-lighting ; 
and to argue it (because of the word u free ") as if 
it had, is absurd and mischievous. Free Trade 
may be a democratic policy in the sense of happen- 
ing to be adopted by a political party styling itself 
the Democratic party. But that there is any thing 
which makes it either necessarily or exclusively 
democratic in principle is thoroughly absurd. The 



2J)6 YOUNG AMERICA : 

English would laugh the pretension to scorn. Yet 
Young America has talked in this foolish way. 
We signalize it, not because of the question itself 
of Free Trade, but as an instance illustrating the 
wrong of confounding questions of economical pol- 
icy with questions of political principle. What 
our views are on the subject of Free Trade it is of 
no consequence for our readers to know. 

Finally, let Young America beware of becoming 
the mere tool of profligate political managers, scram- 
bling for the spoils of office, misusing and abusing 
all the great ideas and sentiments, instincts and 
impulses which are stirring in the great heart of 
the people, into a miserable machinery for selfish 
ends. If it sinks to this, our interest in it is gone. 
Its respectability, its title to the sympathy of the 
wise and good is lost. It will never guide the com- 
ing age in the path of true Progress. It will never 
help inaugurate the era of Social Perfectionment. 



THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION OF THE HUMAN RACK 



THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION OF THE 
HUMAN RACE. 



Gentlemen of the New Jersey Historical 
Society : — It would perhaps be most appropriate 
to this occasion and to the special objects of this 
Society, if I could contribute something to the 
illustration of the history of New Jersey. But this 
is a task I shall not presume to undertake. New 
Jersey has indeed a history of which her sons may 
well be proud — particularly of that portion of it 
embraced by the revolutionary struggle which ac- 
complished the independence of the United States. 
She was the first to resolve on independence. She 
was the second to comply with the recommendation 
of the Continental Congress, and to establish for 
herself a government on the basis of a constitution 
of her own formation. She was one of the first to 
enter into the old confederation of the States, un- 



210 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

der which the war of Independence was conducted 
to a successful issue. She adopted promptly, and 
with remarkable unanimity , the present Constitu- 
tion of the United States. During the war of the 
Eevolution her patriotism was pre-eminent, and 
her contributions to the pecuniary expenditures of 
the contest greatly exceeded her own proportionable 
share. Her soil was long the theatre of contending 
armies, and her sufferings from this cause were very 
great. Within her bounds some of the most in- 
teresting operations of the war took place. At 
Monmouth and at Princeton the enemy were 
worsted ; and here at Trenton, where we are now 
assembled, the tide of the war was undoubtedly 
turned. 

But I will not impertinently take up your time 
with a rehearsal of what is probably more familiar 
to you than to myself. Nor will I attempt to cast 
any new light upon the history, or upon any partic- 
ular portion of the history, of the State. The 
original sources of this history, as they exist either 
in public archives or in private collections, have not 
been within my reach ; and if they had been, the 
pressure of many engagements since I had the 
honor of the invitation to appear before you, would 
have left me no time to go into such an investiga- 



OF THE HUMAN EACE. 211 

tion of them as alone could yield any results en- 
titled to be presented here. 

In the inability therefore to make any contribu- 
tion of original value to the history, or materials 
for the history of New Jersey, I propose to occupy 
the hour with some considerations of a more gen- 
eral nature, bearing upon the great problem of the 
History of Humanity at large, and the ultimate 
Destination of the Human Eace. 

I am the more led to this because the idea of 
the historical Progress of the Human Kace, which 
in itself, and at all times, presents a theme of the 
deepest interest, has of late taken a strong hold of 
many thoughtful minds, and been the subject of 
much discussion, more or less profound ; and it is 
a subject which, to be rightly treated, should be 
considered not merely in its external aspects, whether 
material or political, but from a higher, more com- 
prehensive and rational point of view. The con- 
sideration of it may be said to belong to the Phi- 
losophy of Humanity, rather than to the History 
of it. If we accept the distinction thus intended 
to be made, then doubtless we must affirm that as 
there is a History of Humanity — of the Human 
Kace as a whole during all time — so there must be 
a Philosophy of it. But both are necessary, each 



212 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

to the other ; and only in the union of both can 
our knowledge become true science. In fact there 
can be no true History of Humanity which is not 
philosophical ; and no true Philosophy of Human- 
ity which is not historical. The true History of 
Humanity is something more than annals of out- 
ward events ; the true Philosophy of it is some- 
thing more than abstract speculations. 

The problem of the Historical Life of the Hu- 
man Pace upon the earth is undoubtedly one of 
the greatest problems with which human thought 
can grapple. But there is this peculiar difficulty 
attending the attempt to solve it : that which we 
would explain is yet incomplete, is but partially 
before us. The biography of the plant, of the ani- 
mal, or of an individual man, may lie before our 
eyes, written out in actual completeness from the 
first germinal unfolding to the close of life. Now 
History in its large sense is to the Human Pace 
as a whole, what Biography is to individual man. 
" Humanity is the Man of History." But this is 
a biography which cannot be written — neither now, 
nor at any future period — until the world's histori- 
cal life has reached its term. That life is yet in 
its flow ; and we, who would calculate its course 
and its end, pronounce upon its significance, and 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 213 

sum up its character as one great whole, are in 
the midst of it ourselves, flowing onward in the 
stream of the ages. The Past is behind us ; the 
Present is around us ; the Future lies undeveloped 
before us. 

Standing thus in the midst of the ages, how 
can we explain the Past, comprehend the Present, 
and forecast the Future ? Are we not like com- 
mon soldiers on the battle-field, ignorant of the 
commander's plan of action, and if we were not, 
yet incapable from our position to get such a view 
as would enable us to understand what has taken 
place, what is going on, and what is likely to be 
the issue of the fight ? This no doubt is partly 
true. Yet we are not altogether like common sol- 
diers on the battle-field. We are also spectators 
of the course of events ; and in the necessary con- 
victions of reason, in the light of some communi- 
cations from the Highest source, and in the signifi- 
cance which the progress of events — both of itself 
and through the light that is cast upon it from 
above — has already begun to assume, we have some 
grounds for a philosophical criticism of the History 
of Humanity, of the Human Eace as a whole, not 
collectively at any one period, but in the successive 
flow of generations and ages, throughout the whole 



214 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

duration of the world's historical life. We must 
not indeed take our limited faculties as the organ 
of perfect insight. We must not erect our finite 
judgment into an absolute standard. But we may- 
know enough to make us understand how that 
which seems confused and aimless may, in a higher 
and wider view, have clearness and purpose, that 
which seems stationary or retrograde may yet be 
in progress to its destined end. In short, we may 
reverently attempt to form a judgment that shall 
embrace the past, the present, and the future — 
that shall explain the historical destination of the 
human race. 

The solution of the problem which would nat- 
urally suggest itself to our minds — if we consider 
the nature and capacities of man — is the Develop- 
ment of Humanity to its Ideal Perfection — which 
again can be rightly and worthily conceived only as 
the perfection of a true Rational Life — a life of 
Moral Freedom, of self-subjection to the law of 
duty — a life of goodness, of justice and love. In 
this, and in nothing else, according to the absolute 
determinations of reason, does the true perfection 
of nations as well as of individuals consist, and in 
the Advancement of Humanity towardi this ideal 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 215 

is the only just and worthy conception of Human 
Progress. 

This idea of a perfect social state is indeed only- 
one form of that idea of perfection which gives the 
law to all human thinking and striving. Ever 
stirring in the soul of man, more or less consciously 
and clearly in proportion to the development of 
reason, is the conception of something more perfect 
than any thing we see or know — an ideal of which 
all that the world calls true, and beautiful, and 
good, are but inadequate expressions — an ideal 
which yet, by the necessity of his reason, man is 
incessantly prompted and impelled to express, to 
make real, both in the sphere of nature and of ra- 
tional life. The philosopher, seeking to make 
knowledge science, by penetrating beneath the ever- 
fleeting phenomena to the substantial ground of ab- 
solute truth ; the artist, working, by forms, or col- 
ors, or tones, or winged words, to express the beau- 
tiful'; the saint, striving to realize in the moral 
sphere, in his own personal life, the ideal of good- 
ness ; all evince the domination of this idea and 
this impulse. Hence it is not strange that the idea 
of a better, more perfect social state should an- 
nounce itself in every age of the world — in the 



216 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

traditions of the past, of a primeval age of inno- 
cence and bliss, and in the visions of a future reign 
of righteousness and peace, to which the mind and 
heart of humanity, dissatisfied with the imperfec- 
tion of the actual state of things, has ever turned 
for solace and for hope. 

How profoundly this idea of a perfect common- 
wealth has stirred the best and noblest minds in 
every age, from Plato to Milton and Harrington, 
to Fenelon and St. Simon. It has inspired the 
song of the poet, the thought of the sage, the 
prayer of the devout, the hope of the believer, and 
the labors of the philanthropist, of statesmen and 
legislators, planters of colonies and founders of 
states. In short, all human history reveals the 
power of this idea and this impulse — and that in 
spite of the follies and crimes with which the an- 
nals of the world are filled, often indeed precisely 
in and through those follies and crimes, as mistakes 
and perversions of the true idea, as blind workings 
of the impulse. All history is the history of hu- 
man strivings after a better, higher, more perfect 
social state. Its actual realization in the world, in 
individuals and in society, in nations and states, 
and in their relations to each other, would be the 
regeneration of human society, the fraternization 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 217 

of the nations, and the pacification of the world. 
Wars and crimes would cease, and with the moral 
nearly all the physical evils of human life would 
disappear. It would be the inauguration of the 
Age of Keason, in the true and noble sense of those 
much abused words. 

But is humanity destined ever to reach this 
perfection of the social state during the world's 
historical lifetime ? The Age of Keason — will it 
ever actually arrive ? The millennial reign of uni- 
versal justice and love, brotherhood and peace, 
which every good heart that believes in a good Grod 
is so fain to cling to — will it ever be established on 
the earth ? 

This is a great question. Let us venture to 
look it in the face. Let us see what and how much 
there is to justify the absolute unqualified affirma- 
tion it so often receives. 

In the first place, the theoretical possibility of 
the development of humanity to a state of social 
perfection cannot be denied. It lies in the rational 
constitution of man. Keason in man is the germ 
of a rational human life, as in individuals, so in 
nations and in the community of nations. What- 
ever is possible may become actual. Whatever 
10 



218 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

lies in germ may, under its proper conditions, be 
unfolded. It is a perfection which may not indeed 
be actually attainable to the full extent of the ab- 
solute ideal ; for the most perfect individual must 
still in this life at least be an imperfect creature, 
and the highest perfection of the social state can 
never rise higher than the highest perfection of the 
individuals that at any time compose the collective 
whole of the human race upon the earth. But as 
there are degrees of saintly excellence which may 
be realized by every individual within his sphere, 
and which are measurably realized by some in ac- 
tual attainment, so there is a degree of social per- 
fection which may properly be considered as a sat- 
isfactory proximate realization of the absolute ideal, 
and which must be admitted to be theoretically 
possible for humanity as a whole. 

But what positive guaranty for its actual reali- 
zation does this afford ? In the life of Nature not 
every thing possible becomes for that reason actual 
— not every germ unfolds itself to the perfection 
of its normal life. On the contrary, observation 
shows us numberless cases of abortive attempt and 
failure. To this it is obvious to reply : that though 
multitudes of living germs in nature perish — in 
germ, and in every stage of development, yet these 



OF THE HUMAN BACE. 219 

are individual cases, exceptions to the general rule ; 
that on the whole- — in the large view of its orders, 
species, races — the life of Nature is not an abortion 
and a failure of its proper end. Can we then sup- 
pose that the higher life of Humanity is not des- 
tined to attain its normal development ? Must we 
not regard the capacity of man for social perfec- 
tionment as a guaranty for its actual attainment ? 

This might be held conclusive, if the rational 
perfectionment of human society depended upon no 
conditions different in kind from those of the life 
of Nature ; and even notwithstanding the essential 
difference between nature and free-will, if human- 
ity had no destination beyond this world, the anal- 
ogy of the universe might lead us to expect that 
human society would in some way and some time 
here in this world reach its normal perfection ; al- 
though the problem of human existence would then 
in other and higher aspects become a dark insolva- 
ble enigma — of which I will hereafter more partic- 
ularly speak. 

But admit the idea of another world, and all 
sense of moral contradiction is removed, even 
though humanity never attain to a perfect social 
state on the earth. Keason may then be regarded 
as the germ of a truly rational social state, which 



220 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

is destined to have its ultimate realization ; but 
that realization, as for individuals, so for humanity 
as a whole, may be accomplished in a supermun- 
dane eternal sphere ; and so from the capacity and 
theoretical possibility it is not necessary to infer its 
actual realization in this world. 

In like manner, again, with respect to the uni- 
versal prevalence of the idea of a perfect social 
state and of the impulse to realize it. It indicates 
undoubtedly the goal, it propounds the law of hu- 
man endeavor, the end towards which humanity 
may and should indefinitely advance. But does 
this in itself prove that it will ever be actually 
reached in this world ? If both for individuals and 
for humanity as a whole, there be a destination to 
a life beyond the world — and this can never be dis- 
proved — then the earthly history of humanity en- 
ters into the history of humanity in another sphere ; 
and the highest destination of the human race may 
be realized there, and that end may be subserved 
by the very fact that the earthly history of human 
society is a history of perpetual unsatisfied striv- 
ings after a more perfect state ; and so it is not 
necessary, in order to a rational explanation of 
man's earthly destination, to suppose that the so- 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 221 

cial perfection, for which he is by the law of his 
nature perpetually to strive, must be actually re- 
alized during the lifetime of humanity on the 
globe — however much, as to the rest, we may be 
naturally and reasonably led to hope or to expect 
that the history of the world will in a large and 
complete view disclose itself as an actual progress 
towards it. 

Again : does the actual history of mankind thus 
far warrant any confident prediction that human 
society will ever reach its normal possible perfec- 
tion during the lifetime of the world ? I exclude 
now all reference to whatever Divine ideas and in- 
terventions human history does or may hereafter 
disclose, or to any Divine purpose which may 
thereby be ultimately accomplished. I speak now 
only of the actual progress which the history of 
human efforts to perfect itself in society discloses. 
And I say that after four thousand years of human 
strivings, humanity, neither as a whole, nor in any 
single state or nation, presents the spectacle of so- 
ciety advanced to a true rational state, nor to any 
such degrees of it as measurably to satisfy the de- 
mands of reason or the wishes of the heart, or to 
contain the certain promise of a better future. 



222 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

I will not go over the old story of four thousand 
years — the rise, the culmination, the decline, decay 
and dissolution of states and empires. I take my 
stand in the present time. I admit every thing that 
any one chooses to allege respecting the mighty dif- 
ference between the present and the past — the 
changes, the progress, the improvement — and then 
I ask : what is the present state of the world ? 
Human society is seen in its brightest aspects in 
Europe and in America. A high degree of what 
we call civilization prevails in most of the states 
and nations of these continents — and also in some 
of the colonies established by them in other parts 
of the world, chiefly by the English people. The 
rest of mankind is but partially civilized ; some 
tribes and peoples are yet in the barbarous or in the 
savage state. Barbarism and savageism have, how- 
ever, nearly disappeared ; and at no very remote 
period will, in all probability, entirely disappear, 
through historical causes now at work, and whose 
force, direction and results we can pretty well esti- 
mate ; so that in a century or two, (provided mean- 
while no old civilization tails to pieces,) the whole 
world may be civilized. But what then ? The 
highest civilisation, in the proper ordinary mean- 
ing of the term — the highest civilization, so far from 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 223 

being a guaranty for continual progress, does not 
contain in itself the securities for its own conserva- 
tion and continuance, but on the contrary carries 
in its own bosom the seeds of dissolution and de- 
cay. The practical demonstration of this truth 
lies in the history of the past. And apart from 
this, it is obvious in itself that the highest state of 
mere civilization neither constitutes nor implies 
that true rational state of society, in which alone 
the perfection of the social state consists. A true 
rational society — a society in which the spirit of 
rational freedom or self-subjection to the law of 
duty, the spirit of justice and love, prevails — may 
be and will be a highly and truly civilized society ; 
but a highly civilized society, in the ordinary sense 
of the word, is not necessarily a rational society. 

Consider this point. There is, I humbly think, 
a great liability to delusion, in much that is said 
nowadays about the marvellous progress of the 
age, and the glories of its civilization. Look at it, 
then, in its highest forms. Take London. Take 
Paris. Take our own New York. It is precisely 
to such places, and nowhere else, that you are to 
look, if you would see what the highest actual civ- 
ilization is, and how much it has accomplished 
towards perfecting the social state. Look sharply, 



224 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

then, at the spectacle which this civilization pre- 
sents. What do you there see ? You see there 
the greatest concentration and the freest, most 
diversified play of human energies and activities 
of every kind. There the greatest wealth — the 
greatest abundance of the means of physical ease 
and comfort. There, too, the greatest social pol- 
ish and the highest culture. There flourish phi- 
losophy, science, art, letters, industries. There no- 
ble virtues and much of the beautiful happiness of 
a pure and right life. Undoubtedly. But there, 
also, the greatest proportionable prevalence of vice 
and crime, and the misery of an evil life. There 
the greatest refinement of luxurious enjoyment, side 
by side with the greatest proportionable amount of 
want and destitution. There gorgeous equipages, 
with glittering appointments, soft rolling side by 
side with shivering, ill-clad beggars, whom civilized 
language, noticeably enough, terms mendicants. 
There gilded palaces, purple and fine linen and 
sumptuous fare, soft music, mirth and elegant rev- 
elry — and, not far off, starvation in rags, sunk and 
crowded clown into damp cellars, or stowed and 
packed up under sharp-roofed garrets. 

Here is civilization in its highest actual state. 
Here you see all and the utmost that the civiliza- 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 225 

tion of the age has done to perfect the social state. 
Look at the picture then. Does it present the 
type of humanity advanced to the perfection of the 
social state ? Does it satisfy the demands of rea- 
son, or the wishes of the good heart ? Is it a ra- 
tional state of society ? No, I answer. No. It 
is a thousand million miles away from it. And if 
such a civilization were spread all over the globe, 
the spectacle would be very far from satisfying the 
wise and good man, either in the contemplation of 
the present or in the prospect of the future. On 
the contrary, the progressive development of such 
a civilization in the same line, would be the intensi- 
fication of all the irrational aspects it now presents 
— wealth more and more regarded as the great good 
and the limits to its desire and pursuit more and 
more extended, with a corresponding increase in the 
strength of the temptations to frauds, dishonesties 
and other wrongs and crimes peculiarly incident to 
such a state of society — and, with the increase of 
wealth, a greater and greater increase in the num- 
ber, variety and ingenious refinements of luxurious 
enjoyment and gratifications of vanity and worldly 
pride — and, by the inevitable laws of such a civili- 
zation, all this tending, not to equalize among the 
laboring masses the conditions of comfort and wel- 
10* 



226 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

fare, but to make the poor poorer, and more poorly 
off in physical comforts, in the leisure and means 
for rational development and true domestic life, 
and so to increase the causes of degradation and 
the temptations to vice and crime. 

Besides : the perfection of human society on the 
earth implies not only the advancement of individ- 
uals and communities, but also of nations and the 
community of nations, to a true rational life. It 
implies the pacification of the world, the union of 
the nations in a true brotherhood of justice, love 
and peace. But if mere civilization does not and 
cannot make individual men in society live together 
as brethren, how is it to effect the pacification of 
the world ? The widest extension of commercial 
relations is no certain guaranty for the universal 
reign of peace, though it tends that way. But as 
in the past, so in the future, there is no security 
against collisions of interest ; and ambition, pride 
and passion may still be stronger than the dictates 
of prudence and enlightened self-love. With all 
its progress, all its superiority, the civilization of 
our century — which flatters itself, as Carlyle says, 
that it is the nineteenth — has not protected the 
fairest, the most civilized portions of the world from 
the scourge of bloody and desolating wars spring- 



OF THE HUMAN RACE.- 227 

ing from oppositions of material interests or the 
mad ambition of sovereigns. During the early 
years of this period what scenes of carnage and de- 
vastation, what millions of human lives sacrificed 
on the battle field, what orphanage and heart- 
breaking sorrow in millions of homes — all to grat- 
ify the boundless selfishness of the most heartless 
egotist the world ever saw !* 

Nor did the downfall of that great disturber of 
the world bring permanent peace. Europe has 
since then been repeatedly the theatre of bloody 
battles ; while the late Mexican war has proved that 
the civilization of the nineteenth century has been 
no more a security for peace on this than on the 
other side of the Ocean. And we have no reason 
to suppose it will be on either side a security in the 
future more than in the past.f I am not saying 
whether or not these recent wars are just and ne- 
cessary according to the common way of judging. 

* In the preface to Abbott's Life of Napoleon, we are told " the 
writer admires Napoleon because he abhorred war!" What to 
think of the man, pretending to be an historian, who could say 
that ? What to think of him — an American, too — who could call 
Napoleon " the Washington of France ? " At any rate it is blas- 
phemy of the " Father of his country." 

f With the recollection of Magenta and Solferino still fresh in 
mind, it is unnecessary now, in 1860, to remind the reader how soon 
what was written in 1855 found its justification. 



228 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

I am only urging the undeniable fact that civiliza- 
tion in itself is no guaranty for the abolition of the 
custom of war, no security against the perpetual 
recurrence of the spectacle of human beings coming 
together by thousands, and hundreds of thousands, 
to butcher each other — a spectacle which I say is 
a million miles away from being a rational specta- 
cle, or a spectacle compatible with the idea of hu- 
man society even measurably advanced to a truly 
rational state. Not until wars cease will human- 
ity have advanced to the perfection of its social 
life. Not until then the Age of Keason. Not 
until then the Millennium. This no world-wide 
spread of our present nineteenth century European 
and American civilization, and no intensification of 
its present elements and powers in the future, can 
ever accomplish. 

But the progress of Civil Liberty and the es- 
tablishment of Free Institutions, is much relied on 
as a ground of hope for the regeneration of society. 
It must be admitted that ideas of popular rights, 
and the disposition to demand free institutions, are 
gaining prevalence in many parts of the old world. 
It may be that the despotic governments of Europe 
are destined, at no distant day, to fall shattered to 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 229 

pieces, in the shock of ideas coming face to face, 
or to be gradually replaced by freer forms, through 
the transforming force of prevailing opinion. One 
thing, however, is certain : free governments can 
never get themselves permanently established by 
being put upon the people even by the people them- 
selves, but only by springing up from within, from 
the inner life of the people. Europe is not pre- 
pared for self-government. Italy not yet fully. Nor 
France. Other countries still less. But it may 
be that democratic ideas will spread and take root 
more and more in the heart of the coming age, and 
it may be they are destined to realize themselves in 
the governments of Europe, and ultimately of the 
rest of the world, through the immense and every 
day increasing influence of Europe and of the 
United States. 

But what then ? Suppose this accomplished — 
the preliminary conditions fulfilled, the requisite 
training gone through with, and the same degrees 
also of civilization attained as we have reached — 
and all the nations of the earth to be in the enjoy- 
ment of free governments, civil and political insti- 
tutions modelled after the pattern of our own. 
What then ? Would the moral evils peculiarly 
incident to a high artificial civilization, would the 



230 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

physical evils resulting from the inevitable working 
of its economical laws, be done away ? No : no 
more then, than in our own country now. Would 
the world present the spectacle of humanity ad- 
vanced to a true rational life ? Would it contain 
the guaranties for the continual progress of human- 
ity in the line of rational development ? Would 
it even contain the securities for its own conserva- 
tion ? No : no more in the world at large, than in 
our own country now. 

Besides : the tendency of democratic, as of all 
other power, is to absolutism. We see it in our 
land. But democratic absolutism is not necessarily 
any more rational or beneficent in its workings than 
monarchic or oligarchic absolutism. If not in- 
formed and actuated by wisdom and virtue, it is 
more dangerous and disastrous — of which truth 
history gives us more than one impressive demon- 
stration. Let the spirit of a people become an ex- 
aggerated sense of rights without a corresponding 
sense of duties ; let it challenge for mere will — the 
present will of self-willed majorities that legitimate 
supremacy which belongs to absolute right alone — 
and what are constitutions and compacts if they 
stand in the way ? Paper and words to men who 
will neither read nor hear — especially in any con- 



OF THE HUMAN KACE. 231 

flict of ideas or interests, any struggle of parties 
or passions. That such is the tendency of demo- 
cratic absolutism, of the supremacy of self-willed 
majorities, to override the checks of constitutions 
and compacts, of reason and moral right — it is im- 
possible to deny. It may take long years before it 
becomes developed in any destructive way ; but 
that in its unchecked working it leads on to anar- 
chic convulsion, the subversion of rational freedom 
and the dissolution of the social bonds — it is equally 
impossible to deny. 

And what are the checks that are to restrain 
the dangerous tendencies of democratic absolutism ? 
Without enumerating those which may be con- 
ceived to lie in the modes in which, from the ne- 
cessity of circumstances, the public will may be 
obliged to express and realize itself, I will say that 
there is one without which all other checks are in- 
adequate, and that is the prevalence among the 
people of the spirit of unselfish patriotism, of jus- 
tice and of love. This affords the only adequate 
conservative principle, the only certain guaranty for 
the beneficent working and permanent continuance 
of democratic institutions. 

But does it lie in democratic institutions to 
create this spirit ? Or to unfold it ? Or to foster 



232 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

it ? Or even to give it fair play in public life ? 
No. History answers, no. How is it with us ? 
Politics a war ; " wo to the vanquished/' the war 
cry. Politics a grand game, played by political 
demagogues — the people the pawns — office and the 
emoluments of office the stakes to be won. Swarms 
of greedy office-seekers eager to get into office, and 
rival swarms of greedy office-holders eager to keep 
in ; and so President-making nearly the supreme 
political business of the nation — the question being 
not about the best man, but the most available 
man for party ends ; and the people kept in the 
turmoil of this selfish struggle from four years' end 
to four years' end. 

Is this an edifying spectacle ? Are these in- 
fluences wholesome in their working, either for the 
private or the public morals of the nation ? Is it 
to be wondered at that all the worst elements of 
society come up into disgusting prominence in the 
primary assemblies of the people during the heat 
of elections ? Can we wonder at the brutal scenes, 
the ruffianly assaults, the trickeries and frauds, 
false swearing and illegal voting enacted at the 
polls ? And — like people like rulers — can we won- 
der that the halls of the supreme legislative body 
of the nation are disgraced by scenes of vulgar vio- 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 233 

lence, personal encounters, and deadly weapons 
raised — to say nothing of minor violations of pro- 
priety and decorum unbecoming such a place ? 

If it be permitted to the spirits of the departed 
patriots who sat in Congress in the days of the 
Eevolution and of Washington's administration, to 
witness the conduct of their successors, what must 
they think of the men that now fill the places 
they once filled, and of the people that send them 
and sustain them there ? Let me read you a pas- 
sage from a letter I received in 1837, from a true 
gentleman of the olden time, an eminent man now 
gone, who, in his youth, lived in intimate relations 
with Washington and the public men of Washing- 
ton's day : 

" In the years 1794, '95, '96, I often saw the 
House and Senate of that day. In the month of 
May last I went to Washington solely to see a 
House and Senate of forty years later. What a 
contrast ! If the majority of our nation be now 
fairly represented, we are the lowest and most vul- 
gar of all the Caucasian race/' 

This was twenty years ago. The House of 
Representatives had but just begun to be the bear 
garden it has since become, and the Senate was 
still a comparatively dignified and decorous body — 



234 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

no scenes of personal encounter and brutal outrage 
(I believe) had then been enacted within the walls 
of its chamber. What would the writer of this 
letter have said if he had beheld what has since 
been seen there ? 

Now if the picture of political corruption and 
violence — which I have rather referred to than 
sketched — be to any extent a true picture — and you 
know it is — I ask again : does it lie in the mere 
working of democratic institutions to create, or 
to cherish, or even to give fair play to the spirit of 
unselfish patriotism, justice, and love ? And again 
I answer no. And if the evils we deplore have 
been greatly increasing for the last twenty-five 
years — and that they have cannot be denied — what 
guaranty for the future progress of our nation in 
public and private virtue can democratic institu- 
tions give ? What guaranty can they give even 
for their own conservation and continuance ? And 
therefore, in fine, what guaranty could they give, 
if spread all over the earth, for the social perfec- 
tion of the human race, for the advancement of 
humanity to a true rational life, for the cure of the 
moral and physical evils of society, for the frater- 
nization of men and nations, the universal reign of 
justice and of peace ?• 

* Since the above was written we have had, among the startling 



OF THE HUMAN KACE. 235 

But again : the advancement of Science and 
the diffusion of Knowledge, are much looked to as 
the promise of a better future. No one can think 
more highly of these than I do as conditions and 
elements of the highest social state ; but as they 
do not in themselves alone constitute it, so neither 
in their own efficacy nor in any efficacies which 
they necessarily imply, do they make it sure. 

Much stress is laid upon the marvels of scien- 
tific discovery and their application to human uses, 
to which the last fifty years has given birth. The 
secrets of the Life of Nature are disclosed : the 
wonderful processes, conditions and laws of the 
growth and nutrition of vegetable life are so ascer- 
tained, that agriculture — the great art on which 
the physical life of humanity mainly rests — is com- 
ing to be the most scientific of all arts, supplying 

proofs of our progress on the road downwards, the established fact 
of the whole Legislative body of a Western State bought up in the 
interest of a profligate corporation. And the New York Daily 
Times of to-day (April 18, 1860), speaking of the passage of certain 
bills, sacrificing the public good to great moneyed monopolies, carried 
in the, Legislature of New York against the Governor's veto, says : 
M It will not be possible to convince any considerable portion of the 
community that these votes were not bought and paid for /" I do 
not suppose there can be found a single person of any intelligence 
in the State, who does not believe that those votes were " bought" 
and sold, and probably not without security at least that they should 
be " paid for." 



236 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

with, the greatest certainty, exactitude, and economy, 
the conditions for the restoration of worn-out fer- 
tility, and the appropriate food and tillage for each 
several product, and thus multiplying a hundred- 
fold the capabilities of human subsistence on the 
face of the earth, to which the earthly life of man 
is tied ; the sun is made to copy as no artistic hu- 
man eye and hand can portray ; steam and light- 
ning have annihilated space and time, and brought 
the ends of the world into contact — the world both 
of matter and of mind. These are indeed the mar- 
vels of the age. I stand in admiration, wonder, and 
awe, before them. And greater marvels still will 
doubtless be disclosed in the coming age. 

But it should be remembered that all the do- 
minion over nature which the human understand- 
ing gains should be subordinated to the control of 
reason, should be used for rational ends. Scientific 
discovery, and the subjugation of the tremendous 
forces of nature to man's uses, if it minister only 
to man's self-willed pride, destroying the filial rev- 
erence with which he should stand in the midst of 
Nature, as in the great temple built by the Al- 
mighty Father's hand ; if it be valued and em- 
ployed only as a means of increasing and diversify- 
ing the sphere of physical enjoyment or selfish 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 237 

gratification, will neither make men wiser, better, 
or happier, nor society more rational, or better off 
in any element in which the true well-being of so- 
ciety consists. The tendency on the contrary — a 
tendency augmenting with every fresh conquest 
over the powers of nature — would be to such heights 
of selfish and ungodly civilization as, like the gi- 
gantic science and gigantic wickedness of the world 
before the Flood, must needs be swept from the 
earth, and humanity be made to begin again anew. 
And as to the general diffusion of knowledge — 
it must be remembered that knowledge is a power 
for evil as well as for good. Light in the head is 
not necessarily goodness in the heart. Men in- 
structed with knowledge may be the wiser and the 
better for it, or they may be merely more sharp and 
knowing in evil. Scientific discoveries, the most 
useful and beneficent in their proper application, 
can be turned to account as instruments of crime. 
Knaves and rogues have seized on photography and 
made counterfeit bank notes, which the bank offi- 
cers, whose names they bore, could not distinguish 
from those they signed. Anaesthetic agents, de- 
signed to relieve human pain, are employed by 
thieves and burglars, to put to sleep, or to deepen 
the slumbers of those they would plunder. It may 



238 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

indeed be said that science will ever find out, and 
general instruction diffuse the knowledge of new 
methods for protecting society against such evil 
uses of scientific discoveries. What sort of a race 
is this ? Quite a forlorn hope for human progress 
— it seems to me. 

It does not follow from this that ignorance is 
the parent of devotion — as the old saying goes — 
or of any thing else that is good. But we must 
beware of expecting from the mere diffusion of 
knowledge that regeneration of human society which 
can never come from that cause alone. Unless 
permeated and actuated by higher influences, the 
widest diffusion of knowledge will only make so- 
ciety less wise and less happily off in all that con- 
stitutes its rational perfection and true welfare. 



We have now seen, I humbly presume to think, 
that neither the theoretical possibility of the social 
perfectionment of the human race ; nor the neces- 
sity and universality of the idea and of the impulse 
to realize it ; nor the actual progress of civiliza- 
tion ; nor the universal spread of civil liberty and 
free institutions ; nor any advancement of science, 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 239 

or widest diffusion of knowledge, contain in them- 
selves — either separately or combined — any abso- 
lutely certain warrant that this ideal perfection of 
human society will ever be actually realized, or 
perpetually approached, in the lifetime of human- 
ity on the globe. So far from it, in looking around 
upon the actual spectacle which the highest civili- 
zation of the world presents, and forward to its fu- 
ture progress in the same line of development, we 
are compelled to recognize elements of evil lying 
in the very bosom of that civilization — causes of 
disaster, perilous possibilities of defeat and over- 
throw to the dearest hopes of humanity. The fall 
of the unsupported tower is not more certain by 
the law of material gravitation, than in the moral 
sphere is the certainty that the historical causes 
which have wrought in the past, are causes which 
now and in the future will ever work the same re- 
sults. Wealth, luxury, and corruption, as in the 
past they have been, so in the future they will ever 
be, the precursors of the decay, dissolution, and 
downfall of states and nations. This is inevitable 
unless prevented by adequate corrective and con- 
servative powers — powers which the mere preva- 
lence of democratic or of any other political insti- 
tutions, the progress of science and the spread of 



240 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

knowledge, are not in themselves sufficient to call 
forth and put into action. 

Unless, then, we give over in despair of a brighter 
future, where shall we turn to look for those cor- 
rective and saving powers ? I know but one di- 
rection in which it remains to look. We have al- 
ready looked everywhere else. Shall we then turn 
to Christianity as the last hope for the social 
perfectionment of the human race ? Shall we 
consider what and how much Christianity can ef- 
fect — how and under what conditions — and what 
promise for the future is herein contained ? 

Here I see at once — as all must see — that the 
universal prevalence of Christianity as an actuating 
principle in the life of the world would be the ad- 
vancement of the human race to the rational per- 
fection of the social state. Let the life of human- 
ity — of men and of nations, in their individual, so- 
cial, and political relations, in their civilization, cul- 
ture, science, and art — become permeated and ac- 
tuated by the moral spirit of Christianity, and 
there would be nothing more for reason to demand 
or the heart to desire. 

I see, too, that Christianity purports to embody 
the conditions and means of making its moral spirit 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 241 

a living principle in the life of humanity. In 
Christianity — not, indeed, considered merely as a 
body of doctrines and ethical precepts, and a visi- 
ble institute of worship and moral discipline, but 
in Christianity considered as an historical organiza- 
tion of supernatural Divine powers — I see pro- 
pounded the only adequate cure for the corruption 
of the human race. 

I speak not now as a theologian, but as a phi- 
losopher, when I say, the corruption of the human 
race. For this corruption is simply a matter of 
fact, of which all history is the undeniable demon- 
stration ; a fact of universal observation ; a fact 
testified in the inmost consciousness of every one of 
us — who know and feel that we are not, and of our 
own unaided power shall never become, what we 
know and feel we ought to be. It is this fact which 
contains the reason why the history of humanity 
has been ever a history of abortive strivings after a 
perfection never reached — the reason why the pro- 
gress of civilization, why education, science, know- 
ledge, and civil liberty afford in themselves no guar- 
anty that this perfection ever will be reached. As 
a philosopher I see — what every genuine philoso- 
pher must see — that no creed, however sublime, no 

ethical teachings, however divine, no institutes of 
11 



242 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

worship and discipline, however pure and ennobling, 
can work the regeneration of the human race ; be- 
cause that is something which no merely moral influ- 
ences can accomplish. As a philosopher, too, I am 
bound to look at Christianity in the character in 
which it undeniably propounds itself to the world 
— and that is not merely as a creed, a code, and a 
worship, but also as the incorporation into the life 
of humanity of Divine restoring powers, without 
which all its moral teachings and influences would 
be as ineffectual to cure the corruption of the hu- 
man race as the Vedas and Shastras, the laws of 
Lycurgus, or the institutes of Menu. 

The peculiar pretension of Christianity is to 
cure the corruption of the human race by super- 
natural powers, derived to humanity from the union 
of the Divine and human nature, historically ac- 
complished in the person of Christ, and through 
the perpetual indwelling in man of the Eternal 
Spirit of Divine Life. As a philosopher I am un- 
able to explain either the ground and reason of this 
peculiar constitution of Divine powers — why it is 
or needs must be so, or the mode and working of 
these powers ; but I can quite clearly understand 
that Christianity purports to be such a constitu- 
tion ; and I recognize its immeasurable superiority 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 243 

over any mere creed, or code, or institute, or any 
conceivable system of merely moral influences. Its 
eminent and peculiar pretension is to accomplish 
by Divine powers, in a supernatural way, what I 
know, as a philosopher, no merely moral influences 
can accomplish — the cure of the spiritual corrup- 
tion and weakness of human nature, its restoration 
to spiritual freedom and the power of effectual 
goodness. If it fulfil this pretension, I see, as a 
philosopher, that it supplies also the requisite con- 
ditions for securing to the moral influences of Chris- 
tianity their proper power, and for making the 
moral spirit of Christianity a living, actuating 
principle in the universal heart of humanity, and 
thereby, in the only possible way, making the uni- 
versal spread of civilization, intelligence, and civil 
liberty, safe, salutary, and beneficent in the future 
progress of the human race. 

That Christianity is destined to become the re- 
ligion of the world, in the sense, for instance, that 
it is of our own country now, seems nearly certain, 
merely from the continued working of commercial, 
political, and other historical causes, which have 
already borne Christianity along with them, or 
opened the door for its entrance — as in China and 
Japan. But this does not of itself determine the 



244 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

question whether, through the universal spread of 
Christianity, the perfectionment of human society 
on the earth is destined to be ultimately accom- 
plished. That depends upon the question whether, 
through man's concurrence with the working of the 
supernatural powers embodied in the constitution 
of Christianity, the moral spirit of Christianity is 
to become the actuating principle of the life of the 
world. And how can we, on historical grounds, de- 
cide that this will ever be the case ? 

Christianity has been for eighteen hundred 
years incorporated into the historical life of the 
world. For five centuries it wrought in the bosom 
of the old corrupt Eoman civilization, but could 
not save it. The Eoman Empire crumbled to 
pieces at the touch of barbarian hands — less through 
the force of the shock than through its own rotten- 
ness and decay. Entering, along with the inherit- 
ance of Eoman law, into the new fresh life from the 
North, Christianity, with its immense ideas, its en- 
nobling influences, and its supernatural powers, has 
been working in the heart of modern civilization 
for fourteen hundred years. And what has it ac- 
complished ? Much, doubtless, for numberless indi- 
viduals ; much also for society, for nations, for the 
state — yet but little compared with what it must 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 245 

accomplish before it can effect the regeneration of 
society, the pacification of the world. Breathing 
peace and good- will, and proclaiming its mission to 
be the uniting of men and nations in a brotherhood 
of love, by the pervading bond of one and the same 
divine indwelling Spirit, Christianity, through 
man's corruption, has been itself the very occasion 
of some of the bloodiest wars, the blackest crimes, 
and the most heart-rending cruelties that the pages 
of human history record. That it has not yet 
taught states and nations to live in peace, or to 
settle questions of conflicting interest on principles 
of mutual justice, the late Mexican war, and the 
present state of Europe, are enough to prove. The 
moral spirit of Christianity is not in any tolerable 
degree the actuating principle of the life of any 
state or nation in Christendom. No Christian peo- 
ple presents the spectacle of human society ad- 
vanced in any measurably satisfactory way to a true 
rational state. 

But must we not believe that it lies within the 
resources of the wisdom and power of the Infinite 
Father of humanity to secure for Christianity its 
legitimate effect — to make its moral spirit a freely 
actuating principle in the life of men and nations 



246 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

throughout the world ; and if so, is it consistent 
with our necessary convictions of His infinite good- 
ness to doubt that the resources of infinite wisdom 
and power will be applied, through the providen- 
tial government of the world, to the accomplish- 
ment of this end ? Have we not herein, then, the 
sure guaranty for the final advancement of human- 
ity to a true rational life on the earth ? Must we 
not conceive this to be precisely the Divine plan 
and purpose in human history ? 

A stupendous question this ! I freely admit 
the great ideas upon which it goes. The history of 
the world can no more be rationally conceived with- 
out the idea of the providence of God, than the 
existence of the world can be rationally conceived 
without the idea of the creative power of God. 
Doubtless there is a Divine plan and purpose, ac- 
cording to which the Most High conducts the his- 
tory of the world. Human history is not, indeed, 
like the world of space, the mere product of the 
Almighty will ; neither is it the product of human 
activity alone, whether of self-willed caprice, or of 
rational endeavor. There is a human element in it, 
and there is an element that is divine. An Infi- 
nite Mind presides over the busy activities of hu- 
man freedom, through generations and ages — pre- 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 247 

pares the scene — calls the actors forth in their time 
and turn — and through their action carries forward, 
from age to age, the unfolding of His divine idea. 

But I do not see that we are led, by any neces- 
sity of our conceptions of the infinite goodness of 
God, to believe that the conducting of humanity 
to the actual attainment of the highest possible 
perfection of the social state on earth is the spe- 
cial plan and purpose of His providential govern- 
ment of the world. For even if it be not, all ob- 
jections on this score vanish by the supposition of 
a destination of the human race to a higher eternal 
sphere, and by the fact that meanwhile human 
beings, as individuals, may successfully solve the 
problem of their existence in a very imperfect state 
of society, and indeed precisely through the disci- 
pline which such a state implies — to doubt which 
would be to suppose the existence of every human 
being for six thousand years to be an utter failure 
of its proper end. 

In venturing to pronounce concerning the Di- 
vine plan in the history of the world, we must re- 
member that the earthly history of humanity en- 
ters into its history in a sphere beyond the world. 
The earthly history of the human race is not a 
complete drama in itself. It is but an act in the 



248 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

drama of the history of humanity. When the curtain 
flrops at the end of the world, it drops but to rise 
again for another act on another and a vaster scene. 
The history of humanity, moreover, in its largest 
view, both in this world and in the world beyond, 
enters into yet another and a more comprehensive 
history still — the history of the universe. It is a 
part of that great history ; not only not a complete 
drama, but only an act — it may be not a whole act 
even, but a few scenes, or a single scene — in the 
grand Universe drama, that is to go on unfolding 
forever in the circling round of eternal ages. 

Over this unfolding the Infinite Mind presides. 
Doubt not the grand drama has its plan. It does 
not roll at random through the ages, with a blind 
irrational flow. There is a Divine Idea underlying 
all — ever realizing itself — every scene, every act 
preparing for the next, and all carrying the great 
action onward to its grand development. 

But how dare we, unless instructed by the Most 
High, pronounce what this all-comprehending, all- 
explaining Divine Idea is? How dare we pro- 
nounce what is the subordinate relation in which 
the earthly history of the human race stands to the 
history of the universe, and what is the sjjecial plan 
of God's providential government in the history of 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 249 

this world, through the accomplishment of which 
the grand plan of the universe is to be accom- 
plished ? 

There is, indeed, one comprehensive idea, which 

both reason and Divine instruction seem to warrant 

us to assume. Evil exists in the universe — Moral 

Evil, not the product of God, but of finite self-will, 

through the abuse of that freedom, without which 

there could be no such beings as moral creatures. 

But Good and Evil, like light and darkness, stand 

in eternal opposition, mutually destructive of each 

other. They must ever be in conflict. It does not 

comport with the nature of the Infinite Father of 

the Universe, the absolute personal substance of 

Goodness, of Sanctity and Love, that he should, so 

to say, stand idly by, an indifferent spectator, or 

even as a watchful observer of the conflict between 

the finite powers of Good and Evil. He can take 

no neutral part, but must range Himself on the side 

of Good. A grand and solemn struggle, therefore, 

between the powers of Good and of Evil, conducted 

by the Most High Himself — this we may believe to 

be the inmost sense of the history of the universe. 

This is the comprehensive idea, which explains the 

plan of God's providential government over the 
11* 



250 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

universe. As to the final issue, doubt not what it 
will be. 

It is here that the history of humanity enters 
into the history of the universe. Our world's his- 
tory is also a struggle between the powers of good 
and of evil. This idea explains the purport of 
God's intervention in the world. Christianity is 
precisely the intervention of the Infinite Father of 
humanity, for the subjugation of the evil that is in 
the human race. It is the incorporation of a di- 
vine principle into the corrupted life of the race, 
through the Incarnation of the Eternal Word, and 
the Indwelling of God in Man by the Eternal Spirit 
of Life. The union of God and Man in the person 
of Christ j is the central fact in the history of the 
world, and of the universe, too. It is the central 
principle of the unity of the human race, and of 
all rational creatures. This truth the Infinite 
Father announces in these stupendous words : 
u that in the dispensation of thcfidness of time, He 
might gather together IN ONE all things in Christ, 
both which are in heaven and ichich are on earth, 
even in Him." What words can be more express 
and clear ? You see that the ever-living Divine- 
human Person of Christ, is the centre of the unity 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 251 

of the human race, of its union with God, with it- 
self, and with the rational universe. Herein lies 
the divine principle for the pacification and perfec- 
tion of the world and of the universe, according to 
the wonderful words of the Son of God, the Divine 
Mediator between the Infinite Father and His finite 
creatures : " that they all may be ONE ; as TJwu, 
Father, art in me and I in Thee, that they also may 
be one in us .... I in them and Thou in me, that 
they may be made perfect in ONE ! " If this be 
so, how absurd to attempt a philosophy of human 
history upon any other basis. A philosophy of his- 
tory, ignoring its greatest fact, its central idea ! 
The height of absurd pretension can go no higher. 

That this great all-comprehencling idea of God's 
providence in human history will be ultimately re- 
alized — that humanity, united in Christ to itself, 
to the Infinite Father, and to the rational universe, 
will accomplish a glorious destination in an eternal 
sphere — of this let us never doubt. Let us never 
doubt the final triumph of good over evil in the 
empire of the Infinite Good God. 

Subordinate this great end, the disciplinary 
education of the human race may safely be assumed 



252 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

as the special idea of God's providential government 
of this world. For since God does and needs must 
deal with His rational creatures as moral beings, 
free to improve or to abuse His gracious gifts, to con- 
cur with or to resist the Divine powers which Chris- 
tianity imparts to the human race, it is evident 
that the disciplinary influences of His providential 
government are the great means He must needs 
employ in order to secure the concurrence of men 
with the supernatural efficacies of Christianity, and 
so to make its moral spirit a freely actuating prin- 
ciple in the life of humanity. 

But this does not imply the rational perfection- 
ment of human society upon the earth, unless it 
be necessary in order to the accomplishment of the 
all- comprehending eternal end of God, in regard to 
humanity and to the universe. Whether it is ne- 
cessary or not, is something our thoughts cannot 
pretend to determine. If it be, then doubtless it 
will in some way be brought about, before the 
earthly history of the human race is closed — if ever 
it come to a close, and that it will is certainly the 
idea that Christianity goes upon. 

But human society, states and nations exist, 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 253 

not for their own sake, but for the sake of individ- 
uals, and individuals exist here in this world solely 
in order to a higher existence in another world, and 
it may be that God can conduct humanity to its 
great eternal destination in a higher sphere, though 
the pathway of the generations should, in the fu- 
ture, as in the past, lie through an imperfect and 
disordered world. 

This much is certain : the idea of a merely 
temporary destiny for rational creatures — no matter 
how prosperous and prolonged — is one in which our 
minds can never rest. Men, indeed, suffer and die 
for their country — for the merely earthly welfare of 
those that are to come after them — and are hon- 
ored and revered by those for whom they suffered 
and died ; but both the heroism and the rever- 
ence have their root in rational instincts and senti- 
ments, that announce in man a higher than an 
earthly destination, and are inexplicable on any 
other ground. We are compelled, in fact, in every 
point of view, to hold this higher destination to be 
the great end of man's earthly existence. What 
is any merely temporal end worth in any right ra- 
tional view ? Of how much importance is the 
certainty of a million millenniums of earthly com- 
fort and enjoyment, or even of the highest degrees 



254 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

of rational welfare in store for future generations, 
if there be nothing beyond ? It would neither 
satisfy the reason, nor console the heart. It is only 
in the full faith of a higher eternal destination, 
that the problem of man's earthly existence be- 
comes clear ; only in such a faith we find heart 
greatly to rejoice in the ever so sure prospect of an 
earthly millennium of righteousness and peace. 
Lighted by the radiance that streams clown from the 
eternal sphere, the vision of an earthly millennium 
becomes indeed something beautiful and delight- 
ful, something to pray for and to work for ; but 
apart from that there is nothing in it that gives 
us great heart to pray or to work. On the contra- 
ry, the problem of humanity becomes utterly dark 
and full of trouble to our thoughts ; the long, long 
ages of delayed accomplishment — the slow progress, 
the little gain ; and the long, long ages (it may be) 
yet to intervene before the consummate day — each 
previous generation existing only for the sake of the 
next, and all for the sake of those at the end of the 
series — and those favored generations reaching their 
goal only through the struggles and sufferings, the 
sweat, the tears, the blood of all that went before 
them ! Of such a history of the world, rounded 
out and written up, how does the contemplation 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 255 

strike you ? Does the good luck of the favored 
generations console you for the hundred and sixty 
thousand millions (as I roughly compute it) of hu- 
man beings that have already toiled and wept, and 
become extinct, and the million millions that may 
yet arise to toil and weep, and become extinct, foi 
the advantage of the favored ones ? And what 
sort of advantage ? An earthly millennium — a 
temporary welfare, and nothing beyond ! How are 
you going to absolve God for such a history of hu- 
manity ? If He could do no better, better have 
done nothing ; so at least our reason and our hearts 
prompt us to feel. If He could do better, why has 
He not ? * Either way darkness and trouble to our 
thoughts. But granted a career of endless spirit- 
ual development, and 

Doubt is dispelled and trouble chased away. 

Whether the vision of an earthly millennium is 
to be realized or not, we no longer see thousands of 
generations existing for the sole advantage of oth- 
ers — and that a mere temporary advantage : on the 
contrary, we recognize each existing for all, and all 
for each — the last in the series as much for the first 
as the first for the last, and thereby the same great 



256 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

end for each and all. God's purpose in the earthly 
discipline of the race may in either case get accom- 
plished. That purpose I regard as having a three- 
fold object : the earthly profit of humanity in its 
successive generations, the profit of humanity (in 
individuals and as a whole) in a future world, and 
the profit of the rational universe. 

If there is to come an earthly millennium for 
the human race, the education that conducts man- 
kind to it will also be for the profit of each suc- 
cessive generation on its way to a higher sphere, as 
well as for the advantage of all in that sphere. If 
an earthly millennium is not to come, the disci- 
pline of God's providence here is not made in vain. 
Mankind may learn something, if not all it might 
learn. The world may become a better and a bet- 
ter world, even though it never become a perfect 
world. And the lessons learned too late for this 
world, may not be too late for man's profit in 
another world. And in either case, the great les- 
sons which the history of the world may be intended 
to teach when that history is rounded and complete 
— and which cannot be learned till then — will be 
for the profit both of humanity and of the whole 
rational universe in another sphere. 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 257 

In the full faith, therefore, of a high eternal 
destination for the human race, we can look back 
upon the past without perplexity, and forward to 
the future with tranquil hope. We see, without 
dismay, that ifc took four thousand years to prepare 
for the historical incorporation of Christianity into 
the life of the world — four thousand years of disci- 
plinary education of the human race, under the 
providence of God, in order to put into the world a 
grand historical demonstration of the radical cor- 
ruption of the race, and its utter inability to raise, 
restore, and perfect itself ; and so to prepare the 
way for the coming of the Great Restorer. We 
see, without dismay, the slow progress of Chris- 
tianity, for the eighteen hundred years it has been 
in the world. We see that it has been ever strug- 
gling with the powers of darkness and evil. We 
see that wherever and in whatever degree it has 
failed to regenerate the social state, the failure is 
due to man's resistance of its proper power. We 
note, too, the victories it has gained — the lessons 
God has made humanity to learn, by sharp expe- 
rience, of the consequences of its own self-willed 
pride and wickedness. And we may look with 
solemn awe for more such victories ; for I see not 
how, but by bitter experience of the legitimate 



258 THE HISTORICAL DESTINATION 

fruits of overbearing and nullifying God's teach- 
ings and God's ordinances, the Gospel of Christ is, 
in the coming age, to subvert the Gospel of Mam- 
mon, or the constitution of the State to maintain 
itself against the spirit of self-willed democracy 
setting up the exclusive, and therefore necessa- 
rily licentious and anarchical notion of mere Rights 
as the standard of true Freedom, against the di- 
vine rational ideas of Duty and of Law. But in 
some way, through God's providence, I look forward 
to future triumphs of Christianity over the evil yet 
in the world — to future lessons learned, for the in- 
struction of humanity, and for rational creatures in 
other worlds. And if I cannot give utterance here 
to the ordinary strains of gratulation ; if I decline 
to ring the customary changes in laudation of the 
" spirit of the age " — which seems to me (much 
and for many years deeply pondering the history of 
the world) to be more a spirit of hard worldliness 
and intense worldly pride, less heroic, less reverent, 
less influenced by the enthusiasm of high spiritual 
ideas and unselfish interests, than in any former 
period of human history ; if I cannot draw bright 
auguries for the future, from the mere progress of 
material civilization, of knowledge and political 
liberty — I can point you to better grounds for re- 



OF THE HUMAN RACE. 259 

pose and hope. The destinies of humanity are safe 
in the hands of God. It may be that Divine pre- 
dictions justify not only the belief in the universal 
spread of Christianity, (which we have seen his- 
torical causes make nearly sure,) but also those 
visions of a millennial perfection of society, with 
which the heart of humanity solaces itself — when 
darkness and evil shall be dispelled from the world, 
when violence and wrong, and want and wo shall be 
banished from the earth, and men and nations shall 
dwell together in brotherhood and peace. Let no 
man forbid the religious hope they inspire. Chris- 
tianity can effect this. Nothing else can. It may 
be Grod designs it shall. Let the heart of universal 
humanity lift up the prayer the world's Eestorer 
taught the human heart to pour forth to the Infi- 
nite Father of Love : Thy kingdom come — thy will 
be done on earth as in heaven. And in the spirit 
of this prayer let each one work through his work- 
day on the earth. As to the rest, let us ever con- 
sole ourselves with the fact that the destinies of 
humanity are safe in the hands of God. What- 
ever be the future fortunes of our country, or of the 
nations on the earth, the Infinite Father will gather 
all things together in one in Christ — both which 
are in heaven, and which are on earth. The final 



260 DESTINATION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 

subjugation of Evil in the empire of God is sure. 
Evil will be destroyed by the all-converting, all-ab- 
sorbing power of Eternal Love. The destination 
of humanity shall be gloriously accomplished in a 
high eternal sphere. 



REMARKS ON MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION ON HUMAN 
PROGRESS. 



REMARKS ON MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION ON 
HUMAN PROGRESS.* 



Mr. Bancroft's discourse is, in many respects, 
a beautiful oratorical performance ; constructed 
with great artistic skill ; polished in style ; evinc- 
ing a fine scholarlike culture of fancy and of taste ; 
embodying many just, many striking, many beau- 
tiful thoughts in the choicest forms of expression. 
But considered as a philosophical treatment of the 
great subject it propounds, it seems to us inade- 
quate and insufficient. It does not strike one as 
the production of a great, clear, strong thinker, 
dealing in the might of his own original power with 
a problem which he thoroughly apprehends, know- 
ing exactly what he ought to mean and say, and 

* The Necessity, the Reality, and the Promise of the Progress 
of the Human Race. Oration before the New York Historical So- 
ciety, Nov. 20, 1854. 



264 REMARKS ON MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION 

marching with a firm tread on solid ground from a 
well-defined starting point to a clear determinate 
conclusion. There is a want of grasp and precis- 
ion in the handling. There is a sort of vague hov- 
ering around an object dimly perceived. It seems 
like the work of a dealer in centos of striking 
thought diligently collected, of a weaver of beau- 
tiful sentences, a culler of dainty phrases, one who 
dallies fondly with words as if they were something 
fine in themselves. The theme is proposed ; the 
great divisions are marked off; the interspaces 
are filled with choice utterances, many of them 
true, but many of them, especially in the first di- 
vision of the discourse, not very clearly to the pur- 
pose, either as argument to prove, or as considera- 
tions to elucidate or confirm, the point on which 
they ought to bear ; exciting often your delight 
and admiration, but leaving at last no clear per- 
ception of any thing you have reached except the 
termination — a vague, fine, oratorical peroration. 
You feel as if you had been floating in a cloudland 
of shifting shapes and gorgeous hues, but where all 
is unsubstantial ; or looking through a kaleidoscope 
as from time to time it was turned round, disclos- 
ing infinitely diversified combinations of form and 
color, but without organic connection and signifi- 



ON HUMAN PROGRESS. 265 

cance ; or contemplating an exquisite piece of Mo- 
saic work wherein are wrought a multitude of sep- 
arate figures, many of them individually beautiful, 
but having no unity, no expression as a whole. 

This, we confess, is rather an exaggerated way 
of expressing our feeling, but it does express the 
nature of our feeling of disappointment and dissat- 
isfaction. This elaborate performance is not such 
a contribution to historical philosophy as we had 
hoped to find it. Many profound truths are indeed 
enunciated or suggested, but the great problem it 
undertakes does not seem to us either adequately 
solved or even worthily conceived. We have read 
it again and again, and for the third and fourth 
time ; and each time the question has pressed on 
us — What does it all amount to ? What is its 
pith and substance ? How much and what is its 
clear significance and accomplishment ? And the 
answer we have been able to give comes to about 
this : 

Mr. Bancroft proposes to discuss three topics — 
the Necessity, the Reality, and the Promise of the 
Progress of the Human Race. The nature of this 
progress is thus determined : — u The progress of 
man consists in this, that he himself arrives at the 
perception of truth/' 
12 



266 REMARKS ON MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION 

The necessity of this progress is the first point. 
And out of all that is said under this head — in- 
cluding many striking and beautiful utterances, 
some of them true, some of them which we think 
not true — the following is the substance of every 
thing that has any bearing on the point, either in 
the way of argument or of elucidation and confir- 
mation : " The necessity of the progress of the 
race follows from the fact, that the great Author 
of all life has left truth in its immutability to be 
observed, and has endowed man with the power of 
observation and generalization/' It follows also 
from " contemplating society from the point of 
view of the unity of the universe " — which, so far 
as we can see his meaning and the nature of his 
argument in what is added, amounts to this : that 
the universe is God's creation, the reflection of His 
perfections, subject to perpetual change, because 
finite, and in its changes is governed by His provi- 
dence according to universal and absolute laws — 
the human race marching in accordance with the 
Divine will, and therefore there must be a progress 
of the race ; which progress, agreeably to what had 
before been laid down as to its nature, should con- 
sist in arriving at the perception of truth ; though, 
from what is said in this connection, that idea of 



ON HUMAN PROGRESS. 267 

progress seems to be merged into a larger and more 
general notion not very precisely indicated. 

Then, under the second great division, the re- 
ality of human progress is shown ; in the first 
place by referring to the immense advances in sci- 
ence which have been made, especially within the 
last fifty years — in mineralogy, physiology, astron- 
omy, geology, chemistry ; in the next place, by re- 
citing a number of the wonderful applications of 
the agencies of nature, steam, electricity, light ; 
the extension of commercial relations and means 
of intercourse ; social ameliorations, in regard par- 
ticularly to the position of woman, the dignity of 
labor and the abolition of servitude ; and lastly, by 
referring to the recognition among men of the 
Triune God, the Incarnation and Indwelling of God 
in humanity, and the benign and ennobling effects 
that have flowed from the recognition of these great 
truths. Under, the last division of the discourse — 
the promise of the future — the truth " that God 
has dwelt and dwells with humanity/' is made 
" the perfect guarantee for its progress/' And 
here the notion of progress is made to include not 
only the arriving at the perception of truth, but 
also all sorts of ameliorations, social and political, 
and the universal diffusion of them, especially the 



268 REMARKS ON MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION 

blessings of personal liberty and republican govern- 
ment — all which effects are to come from " the 
more complete recognition of the reciprocal rela- 
tions of God and humanity/' as constituting " the 
unity of the human race/' — although geographical 
science exploring the whole habitable globe, and col- 
onization and commerce filling it with civilized 
men ; and the press ; and free schools ; are to have 
also a powerful influence — whether indirectly, in 
promoting the recognition of this principle of the 
unity and what he calls the universality of the hu- 
man race, or directly, in promoting those ameliora- 
tions on distinct and independent grounds, or in 
both ways, does not clearly appear. 

This is the substance of the discourse, as nearly 
and as fairly as we can make it out. This is its 
whole jointing and articulation. As to the filling 
up, we will not say that it is altogether destitute 
of organic relation to the framework ; but it does 
seem to us that there are many draperies of fine 
thought and beautiful expression thrown over it, 
which have little living connection with it. . 

But our chief dissatisfaction with this discourse 
is in regard to its most general spirit and purport. 
We give all honor to Mr. Bancroft, for his enuncia- 
tion of the great truth that the Providence of God 



ON HUMAN PROGRESS. 269 

is the presiding genius of human history, and of the 
Incarnation of the Eternal Son of God, as the 
great central fact in the history of the world and 
of the universe ; and for the many profoundly true 
and beautiful things he has said in this relation. 
But notwithstanding its unspeakable superiority, 
as in many other respects, so especially in this, to 
most other performances of the class to which it 
belongs, yet it does belong essentially to a class of 
which we have more than enough : whose chief ef- 
fect is to minister to the . pride and vanity of the 
present age, inflating men with a self-complacent 
sense of the wonders they have achieved, and mak- 
ing them feel that there can be no more glorious 
future for the world than in its being just what the 
world now is — only increasingly a great deal more 
so, by the intensification of the spirit of the pres- 
ent age, and by the enlargement of the sphere of 
its activities, discoveries, conquests, in the same 
direction in which it has been going on so magnifi- 
cently for the last fifty years. Seeing thus, in the 
future, nothing but the colossal reflection of its 
own image, the present age finds the contemplation 
as gratifying to its vainglorious conceit as the con- 
trast between the present and the past. 

The question concerning Human Progress, as it 



270 REMARKS ON MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION 

seems to us, can have no value or importance in a 
philosophical view, and there can be no sound and 
salutary thinking in regard to it, unless the nature 
of that progress, in any desirable view of it, be 
rightly and worthily conceived ; unless man be re- 
garded in the highest attributes of his spiritual na- 
ture, and his development to the normal perfection 
of that nature be assumed as the great end for 
which he exists. Kegarded in this point of view, 
the question concerning the progress of the human 
race, is the question whether, and how far it has 
advanced and will advance to a truly rational life, 
in individuals, in society, in states and nations, and 
in the community of nations. All other develop- 
ments of his faculties ; all other advancements, 
whether in civilization, wealth, science, knowledge ; 
all improvements in polity and social institutions, 
are subordinate to this end, and are of worth and 
importance as they conspire to this end. 

In this point of view, it must become apparent 
that the great aspects of human society — in com- 
munities, in states and nations, and in the brother- 
hood of nations — presents a picture in the highest 
degree irrational. Progress in civilization, in sci- 
ence and knowledge, in the subjugation of the tre- 
mendous forces of nature to man's earthly uses, has 



ON HUMAN PROGRESS. 271 

not been a proportionable progress of humanity in 
true rational, moral and spiritual development. 
On the contrary, it has intensified some of the worst 
physical, social and moral evils which the aspect of 
society presents. The greater the development of 
civilization, the worse the moral aspects at the ex- 
tremities of the social scale ; the greater luxury 
and corruption at one end, and the greater misery 
and degradation at the other end : and throughout 
the whole scale the tendency to hard worldliness in 
place of true spiritual development. And by con- 
sequence, no highest intensification and world-wide 
spread of such a civilization in the future will carry 
humanity onward to a better state, to a nearer ap- 
proach to its true spiritual perfection. Equally 
evident is it, from the aspects of the present, that 
a more hopeful promise for the future is not to be 
found in the mere spread of intelligence ; nor in 
improved civil and political institutions ; nor even 
in Christianity itself considered as a creed, a code, 
and a worship. It is only in proportion as the 
moral spirit of Christianity becomes the actuating 
principle in the heart of humanity — in the histori- 
cal life of the world, in men and nations, in the 
state, and in the relations of states — that there 
can be any true progress of the human race in the 



272 REMARKS ON MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION 

line of its proper development. And this is what 
no mere moral influences can accomplish — not the 
moral influences of Christianity itself, however 
powerful and ennobling they are. Because moral 
influences are not an adequate cure for the corrup- 
tion of the human race. Only in Christianity, as 
a historical constitution embodying supernatural, 
divine efficacies, is this cure to be found, and a basis 
thus created for making its moral spirit a living 
principle in the heart of humanity. 

And here we touch upon a defect in Mr. Ban- 
croft's discourse which we greatly regret. He has 
left it too much to be inferred that the guaranty 
for the true progress of the human race is to be 
found in the mere moral effect of the recognition of 
the Incarnation as the mediation between Grod and 
man, and as the centre of the unity of the race. 
We are sure he ought not to mean this, from the 
way in which he speaks of the " indwelling of God 
in man." He speaks of it not merely as a super- 
natural fact accomplished in the historical person 
of Christ, but as a perpetual fact in the human 
race, through the abiding of the paraclete and 
comforter. Still he has not made clear the im- 
mense distinction between the moral influence of 
the doctrine of which he speaks, on the one hand, 



ON HUMAN PROGRESS. 273 

and the supernatural, regenerating powers which 
that doctrine discloses, on the other. 

Whether or not, under the Providence and dis- 
ciplinary government of God, through the working 
of its supernatural efficacies and man's concurrence 
therewith, the moral spirit of Christianity is ever 
to become the paramount actuating principle in 
the life of the world ; and thus humanity to attain 
here in this world its proper development in so- 
ciety, is a point which we have not room now to 
consider at that length without which we should 
not wish to speak at all. 

We cannot conclude without quoting one or 
two passages which we feel bound to subject to spe- 
cial criticism. The first is as follows : 

11 The life of an individual is but a breath ; it comes 
forth like a flower, and fleeth like a shadow. Were no 
other progress, therefore, possible than that of the indi- 
vidual, one age would have little advantage over another. 
But as every man partakes of the same faculties, and is 
consubstantial with all, it follows that the race also has an 
existence of its own ; and this existence becomes richer, 
more varied, free and complete, as time advances. Com- 
mon Sense implies by its very name, thai each individ- 
ual is to contribute some share towards the general intel- 
ligence. The many are wiser than the few ; the multi- 
tude than the philosopher ; the race than the individual ; 
and each successive age than its predecessor ." (P. 10.) 
12* 



274 REMARKS ON MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION 

It is to tlie last two sentences, which we have 
distinguished by printing them in italics, that we 
wish to call attention. We have, in the first, a 
most uncommon use of the term common sense. 
Common sense is commonly understood to refer to 
truths needing no proof or analysis, but immediately 
evident to all men, because all men's minds are so 
constituted as, under certain conditions, to be af- 
fected in the same way. But who ever heard be- 
fore of common sense as implying a mass of cogni- 
tions or convictions, brought together by an intel- 
lectual pic-nic process — one individual contributing 
one thing, and another another, each according to 
his several capacity and power, some discerning and 
contributing truths not discerned by the others ! 
This is a violation of the usage of language, both 
popular and philosophical, and a perversion of psy- 
chological fact. No individual can contribute any 
thing to the common sense of mankind ; and so far 
as there are truths, facts, doctrines, now generally 
accepted among men, which are not in themselves 
immediately evident to all alike, but which have 
been discovered and contributed by individuals, and 
received into the general belief, on grounds of evi- 
dence proper to each, they can in no just usage of 
language be spoken of as the common sense, or as 



ON HUMAN PROGRESS. 275 

objects of the common sense of mankind. This is 
indeed merely a verbal matter, but still we think it 
best that the term in question should be used in 
the meaning it has always borne in general usage. 

But our special concern is with the next sen- 
tence : " The many are wiser than the few ; the 
multitude than the philosopher." This, we take 
leave to say, is, in any pertinent and reasonable 
view of the import of the language, sheer absurdity 
and untruth. It is one of that sort of utterances 
that always move our spleen — smart sayings, with 
a certain ringing tone in them, but as empty of 
truth as " the sounding brass and tinkling cymbal," 
are of " charity n — fine sentences, which when 
grasped and subjected to a searching inquest are 
obliged to collapse into drivelling platitudes, in or- 
der to save even the smallest fraction and semblance 
of meaning and truth. " The many wiser than the 
few ! " What does he mean ? Wisdom is a rela- 
tive attribute when predicated of men. Some may 
have more of it, some less ; some a great deal, 
some very little, some possibly none at all, or so lit- 
tle as to be ranked as unwise or foolish men. Does 
Mr. Bancroft mean that the number of wise men is 
greater than the number of foolish men ? Perhaps 
it is. It is to be hoped it is. But that is not his 



276 REMAKES ON MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION 

meaning ; it would reduce, his sharp saying to a 
pointless platitude. What does he mean then ? 
Who are "the few" that he has in his mind? 
Are they the comparatively ignorant and unculti- 
vated ? No. Are they the comparatively in- 
structed and cultivated ? Yes. And who are 
" the many " ? Are they the more instructed ? 
No. Are they the less instructed ? Yes. 

His utterance then resolves itself into the as- 
sertion that the ignorant many are wiser than the 
instructed few — which is either a flat contradiction 
or else a paradox. If taken as a contradiction, we 
need pursue the matter no further ; if taken as a 
paradoxical utterance of a truth, we deny that 
there is any truth in it. On what ground can the 
ignorance or unwisdom of the many be pronounced 
wiser than the wisdom of the few ? Is it that the 
less cultivated many are individually each wiser 
than any of the cultivated few ? No. Is it that 
the collective wisdom of the many is greater than 
the collective wisdom of the few ? That might be 
the case — provided, in the first place, that the de- 
cisions or conduct of a co]lective body could be 
wiser than the wisdom of the individuals composing 
it — a tiling likely to be when the water of a stream 
can contrive to raise itself higher than its foun- 



ON HUMAN PROGRESS. 277 

tain ; and provided, in the second place, that wis- 
dom were any thing to be measured by bulk or 
weight. Under these two conditions, but not oth 
erwise, this and the other utterances of this sen- 
tence — " the multitude wiser than the philosopher ; 
the race than the individual " — may come to have 
some meaning and truth, instead of being, what 
they now are, absurdly untrue. 

It may be thought, perhaps, that we are spend- 
ing too much time in harrying and worrying this 
poor sentence. We do not think so. It is a 
pointed utterance intended to pass for a striking 
truth. In our view it is not only untrue, but mis- 
chievous ; and we feel bound to expose its untruth 
and to counteract its pernicious practical tendency 
and effect. It belongs to a class of utterances, 
very frequent nowadays, which have no other effect 
than to minister to men's vanity and self-love, pride 
and lawless self-will. Coleridge has somewhere 
said something like this — that a half-truth is often- 
times the greatest of lies. We would say that lies 
which either contain a portion of truth, or the per- 
version of a truth, or which are practically made to 
pass for some great truth standing in their neigh- 
borhood, are the most pernicious of lies. Of this 
sort is the celebrated saying : " The voice of the 



278 REMARKS ON MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION 

people is the voice of God/' True, it is so — when- 
ever the voice of the people is the echo of God's 
voice in man. And only then. In other words, it 
is not a universal truth. But proclaim it as such, 
and you proclaim a falsehood ; a most mischievous 
falsehood. Proclaim it without any qualification, 
on platforms, to excited crowds, and a thousand to 
one, it will be taken as an absolute truth, and as a 
perfect vindication for all that their excited pas- 
sions may prompt them to do. And thus taken, 
it may be rightfully pleaded as a divine sanction 
for all the crimes that have ever been committed 
under the impulse of popular frenzy, from the be- 
ginning of the world to the Crucifixion of the Son 
of God, and from that day to this. 

But Mr. Bancroft's assertion — that " the many 
are wiser than the few ; the multitude than the 
philosopher" — contains no truth, either absolute 
or contingent ; either universal or general ; either 
in principle or in fact. Undoubtedly there is a 
truth standing over against it — but not to be con- 
founded with it, nor made to sanction it — in the 
light of which indeed the untruth of his assertion 
may be more thoroughly discerned. Doubtless 
there is in the public mind an unreflected sense of 
want and an instinctive impulse towards what is 



ON HUMAN PROGRESS. 279 

expedient and wise in the social and political 
sphere. Doubtless, too, in the higher moral sphere, 
there are instinctive convictions and impulses in 
the heart and conscience of humanity, which — pre- 
judice and passion apart — prompt a consentaneous 
cry of the human race in behalf of justice and of 
right, whenever the chords to which they vibrate 
are rightly struck. And in either case, so far as 
the great multitudinous cry utters itself wisely and 
rightly, it is because it is in accordance with neces- 
sary principles divinely implanted in the universal 
human mind and heart — in " the few " as well as 
in " the many ; " in " the philosopher " as well as 
in " the multitude ; " the only difference being that 
the former can interpret the principles which the 
latter only feel, and give clearer articulation to the 
cry which the latter less distinctly raise. It is an 
absurd and wicked thing to set the many and the 
few over against each other as naturally and always 
opposed. They may be opposed. And in any act- 
ual case of opposition, it is not to be absolutely 
assumed that the multitude are in the right and 
the few in the wrong, that the voice of the multi- 
tude is the utterance of the divinely implanted in- 
stincts of the race, the voice of the few a denial of 
them. It may be so ; but the odds are in favor of 



280 REMARKS ON MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION 

the contrary presumption. The philosopher is sub- 
ject to the same instinctive impulses towards what 
is right and good as the multitude ; with better 
cultivated faculties of observation and reflection ; 
knows all they know, and more too ; and is no more 
subject to passion and prejudice than they. It is 
not absolutely certain he is in the right ; but there 
is a fair presumption of it. 

And this brings us out to the general conclusion 
we have to propound in regard to Mr. Bancroft's 
assertion. If made as an absolute assertion, we 
contradict it as false ; we say, the many are not 
wiser than the few) the multitude than the philoso- 
pher. If made as one holding generally true, we 
not only contradict it, but we assert the contrary ; 
the few are wiser than the many ; the philosopher 
than the multitude. This is what should, in all 
good reason, be the case. It is the case. And it 
furnishes the needful condition for thQ progress of 
the general mind, so far as progress in truth and 
wisdom are the result of the working of the reflec- 
tive faculties of man. The researches of the disci- 
plined and cultivated few become diffused as the 
intelligence of the many ; the discoveries of the 
philosopher as the enlightenment of the multitude. 
Such is the ordination of Providence. God has 



ON HUMAN PROGRESS. 281 

appointed the few to be the guides of the many ; 
the philosopher to be the teacher of the multitude. 
Guides and teachers men must have and will fol- 
low ; and if they choose not to follow those of God's 
appointment^ they will follow those of the Devil's 
ordaining. 

We give another passage immediately following 
the one upon which we have so long dwelt : 

" The social condition of a century, its faith, its insti- 
tutions, are analogous to its acquisitions. Neither philos- 
ophy, nor government, nor political institutions, nor relig- 
ious knowledge, can remain much behind, or go much in 
advance, of the totality of contemporary intelligence. 
The age furnishes to the master-builder the materials with 
which he builds. The outbreak of a revolution is the 
pulsation of the time, healthy or spasmodic according to 
its harmony with the civilization from which it springs. 
Each new philosophical system is the heliograph of an 
evanescent condition of public thought. The state in 
which we are, is man's natural state at this moment / 
but it neither should be nor can be his permanent state, 
for his existence is flowing on in eternal change, with 
nothing fixed but the certainty of change. Now, by the 
necessity of the case, the movement of the human mind, 
taken collectively, is alivays towards something better J 1 

Now this passage is an instance, among others 
we might cite, of what strikes us as a want of clear, 



282 REMARKS OK MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION 

just, logically coherent thought. Amidst utter- 
ances plain and plainly true, are some we are com- 
pelled to pronounce untrue, or obscure and doubt- 
ful. We have signalized, by our mode of printing, 
those which dissatisfy us. 

" The state in lohieli we are, is man's natural 
state at this moment'' Assuming that something 
more is here intended than the identical proposi- 
tion that the state in which we now are, is the 
state in which we now are, what is intended to be 
understood ? What is meant by man's " natural " 
state in this connection ? Is it his normal state, 
his proper state, the state in which he should be, 
according to the idea of what is necessary or most 
fit and suitable to his nature ? Then we deny the 
assertion, whether as a principle applicable to every 
historical period, or as a fact alleged of the present. 
Or, by " natural state/' is it intended to mean the 
state which is the natural result of foregoing causes ? 
If so, why not say so in unambiguous phrase? 
We suppose this is probably what is meant, from 
something elsewhere subsequently said, namely, 
that "the present state of the world is accepted 
by the wise and benevolent as the necessary and 
natural result of all its antecedents." This is a 
different proposition from the one in question. It 



ON HUMAN PROGRESS. 283 

is clear enough in its meaning, and in a certain 
sense true enough. But to say that man's present 
state is his i c natural state/' is, in the first and 
most obvious meaning of the words, to say that it 
is the state necessary or most suitable to his nature 
— a proposition which, as we have before said, we 
deny. 

Again : we are told that " by the necessity of 
the case, the movement of the human mind, taken 
collectively, is always towards something better/' 
We suppose that by " movement " is here intended, 
not any instinctive impulse acting upon the hitman 
mind, and which must therefore be perpetually one 
and the same in its nature and direction, but an 
actual progress of the mind. We suppose so from 
what immediately precedes, and because it is the 
obvious proper meaning of the words. Now we do 
not see the necessity here alleged. It is undoubt- 
edly a necessity for every individual, and so for the 
human race taken collectively, that reason should 
conceive and conscience command them to become 
something better than they are in the moral and 
spiritual sphere. The desire for well-being in 
every sphere is also undoubtedly a necessary desire 
in human nature. But we do not see that this en- 
genders any necessity that the actual movement of 



284 REMARKS ON MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION 

the human mind should be always toward some- 
thing better. And we deny that such is always the 
actual direction of human movement. Individuals, 
nations, the race, can go the road downward, as 
well as the road upward ; and at various periods 
have done so from age to age. History demon- 
strates this. For near two thousand years the 
movement of the collective human mind was ever 
towards something worse — such a progressive and 
accelerating degeneracy that at last the great bulk 
of the race — all but one family — had to be swept 
from the earth, and humanity made to begin again 
anew. Then followed another long period of more 
than two thousand years, during which humanity, 
starting from its new cradle in the East, unfolded 
itself again in manifold developments from its rude 
patriarchal condition. Families became tribes ; 
tribes nations ; states got organized ; industries 
became more diversified and improved by division 
of labor, thus producing interchange, commerce. 
Then came culture — science, art — first displaying 
itself in the infinite striving of the Oriental mind, 
embodying itself in vast transcendental myths, in 
huge, gigantic symbols ; then among the Greeks, 
as the sense of unity, proportion and the purely 
beautiful ; and lastly among the Komans, as the 



ON HUMAN PROGRESS. 285 

most perfect organization of the ideas of right and 
law. All these developments, manifold and great. 
But what, after all — applying the highest rational 
standard, the only true criterion by which to esti- 
mate the progress of man — what was the progress 
of humanity during that long period ? It was a 
progress downward. It was a continual degener- 
acy. In the first place, in the spiritual sphere, it 
was the loss — the obscuration, corruption, and well- 
nigh total extinction, of the traditional light of the 
primitive revelation, the true knowledge of God. 
The struggle between pure monotheism and the 
idolatrous polytheistic corruption of it began almost 
immediately in the new cradle of the human race 
— resulting after eight hundred years in the com- 
plete victorious establishment of polytheism. The 
existence of monotheism may indeed be discerned 
for six hundred years more ; but from that time it 
was utterly driven out from the faith of all the 
great historical peoples of the earth, and survived 
nowhere except in some remote wilds and moun- 
tains of Asia and Europe. — In the second place, in 
the political and social sphere, it was the destruc- 
tion of the primitive patriarchal state, and the es- 
tablishment, in Asia, of the pure despotism that 
has existed there ever since, and in Europe, of a 



286 REMARKS ON MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION 

pure democracy, giving way in turn to oligarchy 
and then to military despotism. — And finally, in 
the moral sphere, in practical life, it was a dete- 
rioration greater than which cannot well be con- 
ceived. No public and little private virtue. At 
the close of this period, the very culminating 
point of the ancient civilization, when the central- 
ization of the world under the imperial dominion 
of Kome was perfected, the human race had become, 
more thoroughly corrupt than ever before — every- 
where unprincipled profligacy, beastly sensuality, 
filthy vices, unutterable abominations of every kind ; 
whereof St. Paul's description, at the opening of 
his Epistle to the Eomans, is but a faint adumbra- 
tion compared with what may be gathered from the 
literature of that refined and polished age. Here 
was the progress of the human race, its spiritual, 
social, moral progress, for more than two thousand 
years ! Starting from the pure knowledge of the 
true God, from the simple government, the rude 
morals but comparative innocence, of the patriarchal 
state ; and ending in universal polytheistic idolatry, 
absolute despotism, and unparalleled social and 
moral degradation and vice. Yet we are told that 
" the movement of the human mind taken collect- 
ively, is always towards something better " ! 



ON HUMAN PROGRESS. 287 

It may indeed be said that during this period 
humanity was being prepared ; under the providence 
of God, for that grand intervention for its restora- 
tion which at the end of it was historically accom- 
plished in the Incarnation of the Son of God. No 
doubt it was so. Humanity had completely un- 
folded itself in all its natural faculties and powers, . 
in every sphere — in science, art, laws, life. It had 
showed itself in its highest and brightest as well 
as in its lowest and darkest aspects. And it had 
demonstrated its insufficiency for itself. It had 
given a full historical demonstration, on a world- 
wide stage, of its radical corruption, of it's entire 
inability to raise, restore, and perfect itself. Phi- 
losophers and lawgivers, sages and prophets, had 
risen, century after century, and labored in every 
way at the problem of elevating and perfecting the 
human race — and all in turn had failed. Then 
undoubtedly was " the fulness of time/' the fitting 
occasion for the Divine intervention. But it can- 
not be said on this account, that u the movement 
of the human mind " during this period was " al- 
ways towards something better/' It would be an 
abuse of language to use it in this way. You 
might as well say a long career of crime, termi- 
nating at length in the State Prison, was always a 



288 REMARKS ON MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION 

movement of a bad individual towards something 
better, because the discipline of punishment turned 
out to his eventual reformation ; or that a course 
of profligate intemperance, inducing at length 
frightful disease, was a constant progress of the 
profligate towards something better, because the 
wholesome dread of death led to a return to tem- 
perate and healthful habits. 

We have dwelt thus long and spoken thus 
strongly on this point, because we think the doc- 
trine untrue and practically mischievous. For the 
same reason we would signalize the following pas- 
sage, putting in italics the sentences we particu- 
larly question the truth of : 

" The course of civilization flows on like a mighty 
river through a boundless valley, calling to the streams 
from every side to swell its current, which is always 
growing wider and deeper, and clearer as it rolls along. 
Let us trust ourselves upon its bosom without fear, nay, 
rather with confidence and joy. Since the progress of the 
race appears to be the great purpose of Providence, it be- 
comes us all to venerate the future. We must be ready to 
sacrifice ourselves for the coming generation, as they in turn 
must live for their posterity. We are not to be disheart- 
ened that the intimate connection of humanity renders it 
impossible for any one portion of the civilized world to 
be much in advance of all the rest, nor to grieve because 
an unalterable condition of perfection can never be at- 



ON HUMAN PROGRESS. 289 

tained. Every thing is in movement, and for the better, 
except only the fixed eternal law by which the necessity 
of change is established ; or rather except only God, who 
includes in himself all being, all truth, and all law. The 
subject of man's thoughts remains the same, but the sum 
of his acquisitions ever grows with time, so that his last 
system of philosophy is always the best, for it includes 
every one that ivent before. The last political state of 
the world likewise is ever more excellent than the old, for 
it presents in activity the entire inheritance of truth, 
fructified by the living and moving mind of a more 
enlightened generation" (P. 36.) 



Now here, as before, are some things true, some 
things which we cannot admit as true ; and the 
general drift any thing but sound and salutary. 
We are almost tempted to call it pernicious rigma- 
role. It is calculated to make men " accept the 
present state of the world " in a way that we re- 
gard as very detrimental to true progress. True 
progress begins in a sense of the need of reforma- 
tion. It begins in mankind, as in individuals, with 
repentance^ and that begins in the sense of sinful- 
ness and evil. And the promise of it is hopeful in 
proportion as the sense of sin is pervading and 
deep. It is a poor thing, in our judgment, to tell 
mankind at this age. that they are going gloriously 

onward in a perpetual movement towards some- 
13 



290 REMARKS ON MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION 

thing better ; which something, after all, as it is 
sure to be generally understood, is only the increase 
and expansion of what they now are. It just makes 
men satisfied with some of the worst characteris- 
tics of the age. 

We are probably in no danger of a return to 
the Atheistic materialism of the last century, still 
less to the Polytheistic idolatry of the Eoman 
world. Christianity is likely to be the prevailing, 
the popular, the fashionable religion, so far as a 
theoretic adoption of its formulas and a deferential 
recognition of its practical claims goes — provided 
they do not become too troublesome. The present 
age, above all others that have ever preceded it, is 

the AGE OF THE UNDERSTANDING — the facility of 

adapting means to ends in the sphere of time and 
sense. Never, in all former ages together, has the 
understanding achieved such stupendous triumphs 
as in the last fifty years. And the end which all 
these achievements — discoveries, inventions, con- 
quests over nature — are made to serve : what are 
they ? Mainly, wealth and the multiplication of 
the means and refinements of enjoyment or other 
material or worldly ends. The spirit of the pres- 
ent age is the spirit of the intensest worldliness 
and self-willed pride. It is not Atheistic like the 



ON HUMAN PKOGRESS. 291 

spirit of the last age. It is not Polytheistic. It 
believes in two Deities : God and Mammon. And 
never was the imperial government of Home more 
obstinately determined on making the thousand 
gods of its conquered provinces dwell peaceably to- 
gether in the Pantheon, than the spirit of the 
present age is on reconciling the worship of God 
and Mammon. Mammon hae the heart of the age ; 
and if God would be content with a temple (a fine 
one sometimes, when it gratifies the vanity of the 
builders,) with the bended knee, and with the ser- 
vice of the lip — on Sundays, — that would be an 
arrangement profoundly acceptable to the taste of 
the age ; provided also that God's temples may be 
torn down and the consecrated earth carted off to 
fill up lots with, whenever the age wishes to dig 
the deep foundations of some Mammon's temple on 
the sacred ground. 



PRESIDENT MAKING AND NATIONAL COEEUPTION. 
THEEE LETTEES TO THE HON. JOSIAH QUINCY. 



PRESIDENT MAKING AND NATIONAL COR- 
RUPTION. 

THEEE LETTERS TO THE HOK JOSIAH QUINCT. 
LETTEE L— DEPARTURE FROM THE CONSTITUTION. 



My Dear Sir : In concluding to print some re- 
flections I had set down on the practical working 
of our political system in the matter of filling the 
office of President of the United States, it was 
natural for me to cast about for some one through 
whom I might address the public with better hope 
of gaining -attention to my thoughts than my own 
humble and unknown name could warrant. Among 
all those whose names hold (and justly) an honored 
place in the regards of intelligent and good men, 
(here is none stands higher than yours for pure 
patriotism and unsullied integrity, for every public 



296 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

and every private virtue, through a long life 
devoted in no inconsiderable degree to the public 
service. 

In availing myself of your frank and cordial 
permission to address these letters to you, I not 
only gratify long-cherished sentiments of respect 
and admiration, inspired by the principles and 
course of your public life, and of personal regard 
linked with the recollections of my youthful days, 
when I enjoyed the pleasure of your society and the 
benefits of your wisdom ; but I please myself with 
thinking there is a special fitness in placing myself 
under the patronage of your venerable name in 
putting forth the considerations I am about to 
present. 

I propose to point out evils and dangers which 
are in a great measure the result of departing from 
the provisions of the Constitution, and to consider 
whether any thing can be devised to remedy or to 
lessen them. You are one of the very few survivors, 
if not the last, among those statesmen whose youth 
was cradled and nurtured amid the men and princi- 
ples and sentiments that presided at the foundation 
of our government. 

You tell me, indeed, that " our country is ap- 
parently running a career in which Constitutional 



DEPARTURE FROM THE CONSTITUTION. 297 

amendments, however wise, cannot be effected, and 
if effected would be of little avail.'' I agree with 
you in thinking there is little reason to expect de- 
sirable Constitutional amendments. I am quite 
clear the one I shall suggest runs very little chance 
of getting practically accomplished. That may be 
a sufficient reason for a wise statesman not under- 
taking to accomplish it, but no reason whatever for 
not entertaining the question, whether it would not 
be well to adopt it. As to the other part of your 
remark, I hope to satisfy you, when you come to 
look at it, that if the change I venture to suggest 
were adopted, it would be of very considerable avail. 
Meantime, I am sure the discussion will have 
interest enough to secure your attention, and I hope 
that of other candid and thoughtful persons, even 
if it be regarded merely in the light of a politi- 
cal speculation, a disquisition on the science of 
Constitutional government. Truth is truth, in 
the political as in every other sphere, and ought 
to command, at least, the homage of respectful 
acknowledgment. Let it get that, and it may 
possibly, in time, win more. Any honest attempt 
to set it forth is entitled at least to kindly indul- 
gence. 

But the great purport and main substance of 
13* 



298 PKESIDENT MAKING. 

my labor is to call attention to undeniable facts 
which it is infinitely important for the welfare of 
the nation should be brought home to the minds 
and hearts of the great mass of the people. The 
first condition of salvation is to understand and feel 
the evils and dangers that environ us. " To 
enlighten and diffuse sound principles among the 
multitude/' you tell me is, in your judgment, "the 
highest and most hopeful of benefit, of all the labors 
of patriotism/' If " the few are lost to every thing 
but their own ambition, or their own interests, the 
many may be influenced/' I thank you for think- 
ing I may in this way do some good. 

I shall therefore proceed first to show how the 
intention of the Constitution, so far as relates to 
the mode of choosing the President of the United 
States, is not only frustrated, but completely re- 
versed — what its provisions were intended to secure 
being done, is not done, and what they intended 
to prevent being done, is constantly done. It would 
be sufficient merely to advert to this if I were writ- 
ing only for you, and those who, like you, are familiar 
with the Constitution and its working. But there 
are great numbers who have never given particular 
attention to the matter. 



DEPARTURE FROM THE CONSTITUTION. 299 

The Constitution commits the choice of Presi- 
dent neither to a popular vote, nor to the State 
Legislatures, nor to the Federal Legislature (except 
partially in a certain exigency), nor to any perma- 
nently existing body of functionaries ; but to a cer- 
tain number of electors temporarily appointed for 
this sole purpose. These electors emerging on a 
given day from the mass of the people, meeting, 
not in one grand Electoral College, but, in separate 
Colleges in their respective States, on the same day 
throughout the Union, cast their votes by ballot. 
This done, and the record dispatched to the seat 
of Government, their function is ended, and they 
are left to return again into the mass of the people 
as suddenly as they emerged. 

What is the object of these provisions ? Plainly 
this : on the one hand to avoid the evils and dan- 
gers of a popular election — the demoralizing influ- 
ences, the excitement and tumult, corruption, and 
violence to be apprehended from the struggles of 
rival candidates, rival combinations of partisan lead- 
ers, and conflicting parties and factions among the 
masses of the people ; and on the other hand, to 
guard, as far as possible, against the liabilities to 
intrigue, bargain, and corruption, incident to com- 
mitting the choice to a smaller body — and to do 



300 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

this by securing the appointment of a considerable 
number of independent electors intellectually and 
morally competent to the high trust, and removed 
by the circumstances under which they act from the 
reach of temptations to abuse their trust. The 
provision under which the electors are to cast their 
votes not in one College, but in separate Colleges 
in each of the States, and on the same day through- 
out the Union, is specially intended to prevent 
intrigues and corrupt coalitions among the electors 
themselves, and to render it difficult, if not impos- 
sible, for ambitious candidates to exercise an im- 
proper influence over them. And if we consider 
the state of communication then existing, and, for 
aught that was then known, likely to continue — 
when steamers, railways, and electric telegraphs 
were things undreamed of by the wildest dreamers 
— it is not too much to say that the frame rs of our 
Constitution looked upon it as a thing next to 
impossible for ambitious aspirants to bring any or- 
ganized and effective scheme of corrupt influence, 
or influence of any kind, to bear upon the electors, 
dispersed as they were throughout the country. It 
is not too much to say that the purpose of these 
provisions went even to the extent of preventing 
the office of President from being a possible object 



DEPARTURE FROM THE CONSTITUTION. 301 

of ambition, in the old original sense of the word, 
by putting it out of the power of candidates to get 
at and so to get around (ambire) the persons upon 
whom the choice devolved. 

It is undeniably the theory of our government 
that the people of the United States, in their sove- 
reign capacity, delegate the choice of President to 
the discretion of the electors — that the electors are 
to be held as fit persons to be intrusted with this 
discretion ; and that in their several Colleges they 
are to exercise the function of a free and independ- 
ent choice, subject only to the high moral responsi- 
bility of choosing the man they find best fitted for 
the office. 

This is the theory of the Constitution, lying on 
the very face of its provisions. That such was the 
intention of its framers, may be seen in the Feder- 
alist at large. And such has been the interpretation 
of its provisions by all the commentators since its 
adoption. 

" The -theory of this mode of election/' says Mr. 
Bayard, ( * evidently is that the people should dele- 
gate their right of choice to a select body of men 
in whose judgment they could confide, and with 
whom it would rest to elect the persons in their 
opinion best qualified for the stations." * 

* Bayard on the Constitution, p. 102. 



302 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

"It was found expedient/' says Mr. PtAWLE, 
" that the President should owe his election neither 
directly to the people, nor to the Legislatures of 
the States, yet that these Legislatures should create 
a select body, to be drawn from the people, who, in 
the most independent and unbiassed manner should 

elect the President It was supposed that the 

election would be committed to men not likely to 
be swayed by party or personal bias, who would act 
under no combination with others, and be subject 
neither to intimidation nor corruption." * 

To the same effect, Mr. Justice Story, who 
sums up the intentions of the framers of the Consti- 
tution and their arguments in favor of this mode of 
election, as drawn from the writings of Madison, 
Hamilton and Jay, in the Federalist. " It was 
thought," he says , " that the immediate election 
should be made by men the most capable of analyz- 
ing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting 
under circumstances favorable to deliberation and a 
judicious combination of all the inducements which 
ought to govern their choice. A small number of 
persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the 
general mass for this special object, would be most 
likely to possess the information and discernment, 

•Rawle, 52, 57. 



DEPARTURE FROM THE CONSTITUTION. 303 

and independence essential to tlie proper discharge 
of the duty/' * 

It was thus intended that the President of the 
United States should owe his election to the free, 
unbiassed suffrages of the electors, acting as the 
trusted representatives of the people ; that, in the 
circumstances under which they vote, as w T ell as in 
the characters of the men, the people of the United 
States should have the strongest possible guaranties 
that the electors would cast their ballots under a 
full sense of their high moral responsibility to choose 
the best man they could elect, but subject to no 
other responsibility, and governed by no other influ- 
ence ; and also that in the person elected by the 
concurrent votes of such men, under such circum- 
stances, the people would have the strongest possi- 
ble guaranties for obtaining a President eminently 
qualified for the high office ; and finally, that by 
such a mode of election, the President, not owing 
his elevation to power to corrupt arts, would enter 
upon his duties, on the one hand, free from all 
temptations to a corrupt use of the patronage of his 
office — seeing he would have nobody to reward or 
punish for exertions for or against his election, and 
nobody to buy in order to secure his re-election ; 

* Story, Comment. III. 315. Federalist, No. G8. 



304 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

and, on the other hand, equally unbound by po- 
litical pledges, and so left free to administer the 
government, not in the interests or passions of a 
party or a section, but as President of the whole 
nation. 

Now, to those who are familiar with the actual 
working of our system, nothing more than this bare 
recital is necessary to show how entirely the inten- 
tion of the Constitution in this matter is overborne 
and nullified. Its provisions are in effect complete- 
ly reversed in every particular. 

In point of fact, no discretion is allowed to the 
electors. " In no respect/' says Mr. Rawle, " have 
the enlarged and profound views of those who framed 
the Constitution, or the expectations of the people 
when they adopted it, been so completely frustrated 
as in the practical operation of the system so far 

as relates to the independence of the electors 

They do not assemble in their respective States for 
a free exercise of their own judgments, but for the 
purpose of electing the particular candidate who 
happens to be preferred by the predominant politi- 
cal party which has chosen the electors. In some 
instances, the principles on which they are chosen 
are so far forgotten that the electors publicly pledge 
themselves to vote for a particular individual, and 



DEPARTURE FROM THE CONSTITUTION. 305 

thus the whole foundation of this elaborate system 
is destroyed." 

So wrote Mr. Eawle more than thirty years 
ago. What was the case then is more completely 
and universally the case now ; if there were any in- 
stances in which electors exercised an independent 
discretion then, there are none now ; and whether 
they give public pledges or not, it is understood on 
all hands, both by themselves and those who vote 
for them, that they are all pledged to vote for a 
particular candidate — otherwise they would never 
be chosen ; and so completely is the intention of 
the Constitution subverted that an independent ex- 
ercise of discretion would be considered a dishon- 
orable breach of trust ; and thus (to speak in Hi- 
bernian fashion) the only alternative the electors 
have is not to be elected, unless they are willing to 
be parties and agents in doing what the Constitu- 
tion not only does not intend should be done, but 
what it positively intended should not be done. 
If they shrink from this, they cannot honorably 
permit themselves to be chosen electors. They 
must choose between a breach of trust to the Con- 
stitution and a breach of trust to their party ; and 
this is all the discretion left. 

The electors are thus wholly divested of their 



306 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

constitutional character and functions. They are 
no longer a body of independent electors, but a 
mere board of registry, giving formal authentication 
to a popular vote. For the people, in point of fact, 
choose the President while nominally voting only 
for electors ; and in this view of the case the inten- 
tion of the Constitution is also completely frus- 
trated. It was no more intended that there should 
be a popular vote designating to the electors an 
individual to be chosen by them, than that the 
President should be directly chosen by a popular 
vote. Such a designation is not, indeed, expressly 
forbidden in the Constitution, but it is palpably 
contrary to the whole spirit and most positive inten- 
tion of its actual provisions ; and to suppose that 
any such designation, if made, would or should be of 
any binding force upon the electors, is to render the 
whole system of Electoral Colleges a needless device, 
a clumsy farce — making pretence of doing what 
was already in point of fact effectually done before, 
a farce which the sooner it were put an end to the 
better. 

We thus see that what the Constitution intend- 
ed should be done, is not done ; and what it in- 
tended should not be done, is constantly done. It 
intended the electors should choose the President, 



DEPARTURE FROM THE CONSTITUTION. 307 

and they do not : it intended that the people should 
not choose him, and they do. 

This is notorious and undeniable. Nobody 
thinks of denying it, and hardly anybody thinks it 
any thing to be troubled about. Nay, there are 
those who justify it, on the ground that such is the 
Will of the People, and that the people have a 
sovereign right to have their own will any way. 
Some say this because they do not know any bet- 
ter, and some in spite of knowing better. The for- 
mer are weak dupes of words, whom the latter 
(sharp demagogues) make dupes of by the abuse 
of words. The former say it because they do not 
see — the latter in spite of seeing its futility and 
fallacy. For it is too clear to need be argued — it 
belongs to the very rudiments of the science of 
government — that the people may, if they choose, 
embody their sovereign will in a Constitution, and 
may delegate their sovereign right of choosing their 
Chief Magistrate to a body of independent electors 
if they see fit. The people of the United States 
have done so ; and > so long as the Constitution 
stands, the sovereign will of the people is embodied 
there, out of the reach of the numerical majority 
of the people. The present will of a numerical 
majority is not the sovereign will of the people. 
So Ions; as the Constitution stands, it is the sov- 



308 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

ereign will of the people that the people shall not 
choose their President by a popular vote. If the 
people do not like this, if they wish to choose their 
President by a popular vote, then in the exercise 
of their sovereign power they should alter the Con- 
stitution. They can then have what they want in 
a regular way, and far more perfectly than by the 
present system of perverting the Constitution, un- 
der which it may happen, and has happened, that 
the President is chosen neither by the suffrages of 
independent electors, as the Constitution intended, 
nor by the majority of the people, as these persons 
claim should be the case, but by a minority of them. 
But so long as the Constitution stands, its inten- 
tions should be carried out, not frustrated. There 
is no end of fervors of devotion to the Constitution, 
no end of loving jealousy for the preservation of its 
integrity, when sectional or party interests are to 
be secured by scrupulous adherence to it : it is then 
something altogether sacred and inviolable. But 
when the violation of it serves those interests, its 
plainest intentioDS may be violated, and the viola- 
tion justified by fallacious phrases which delude no- 
body but the unreflecting masses whom demagogues 
hold are made to be their dupes. 

I shall next consider the evils and dangers re- 
sulting from this departure from the Constitution. 



PRESIDENT MAKING. 

LETTER II.— EVIL CONSEQUENCES. 



My Dear Sir : The perversion of the intention 
of the Constitution which we have considered might 
be thought not to matter much in a practical view, 
if only it worked well. But it does not work well. 
It works badly every way. 

It has made President making the chief politi- 
cal business of the nation. It has carried this bu- 
siness into Congress, into the State Legislatures, 
into all State elections and all municipal elections, 
converting all public offices and employments of 
nearly every sort and kind into means and instru- 
ments for carrying this business on ; in short, it 
has carried this business everywhere and into every 
thing ; and with pernicious influence everywhere 
and upon every thing — upon the legislative bodies 
— National and State ; upon all public functiona- 



310 PKESIDENT MAKING. 

ries ; upon political parties ; upon the press ; upon 
the great mass of the people throughout the coun- 
try ; upon the candidates they vote for ; upon the 
man they choose, and upon the administration of 
the Government he takes in hand. 

An exact and complete analysis of the actual 
working of our system in all these particulars would 
put the truth of these assertions into clear and bold 
relief. But it would take volumes. I must con- 
tent myself with briefer indications. 

Our system has called into existence a race of 
men, the like of whom, on an equal scale, exists 
nowhere on the face of the earth — the race of poli- 
ticians, not in the old, better sense, the word by its 
origin was meant to bear — men versed in the prin- 
ciples which constitute the polity of nations and 
the science of right government ; nor men ambi- 
tious of the highest public trusts, because they are 
conscious of abilities to serve their country and of 
the impulse to do so, and whose motives, if not ab- 
solutely unselfish, have in them nothing sordid, 
nothing lower than the natural and respectable de- 
sire for honorable distinction in a high public ca- 
reer ; but, politicians in the low sense they have 
degraded the word to bear — political intriguers, sa- 
gacious demagogues, clever in electioneering arts, 



EVIL CONSEQUENCES. 311 

cunning in contriving and skillful in managing the 
complicated machinery by which the ballot-box may 
be made to serve their purposes. A most perni- 
cious race. The great curse of the nation. 

These men, acting on the well established un- 
derstanding that they who help make the President 
shall share in the patronage of his office, have taken 
possession of the country for carrying on the busi- 
ness of President making in the interests of the 
great parties to which they attach themselves for 
the furtherance of their own ends. 

Each of the great conflicting parties — always 
two, and sometimes more — puts forward its candi- 
date for the Presidency, nominated by a general 
convention of the party composed of delegates from 
every State, chosen for the purpose under the guid- 
ance of these political managers, and in the choice 
of which, (as well as in the nomination of electors,) 
especially in the primary assemblies, the most re- 
spectable portion of the people have but little share 
and less influence. 

The nominations made, then begins the cam- 
paign, as it is significantly termed. The whole 
country is converted into a battle-field for the con- 
flict of rival parties contending in dual or in trian- 
gular warfare. The whole nation is involved in the 



312 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

din and smoke of the hot contest. Nearly every 
thing is drawn into it and made to turn upon it — 
even to the filling of the pettiest municipal office 
in the smallest hamlet in the land. If any man in 
the United States wants a public office or employ- 
ment of any sort, under the Federal, or any State, or 
Municipal Government, he must enroll himself in 
the ranks of one or the other of these great parties, 
and make himself serviceable in proportion to the 
prize he seeks. He must work hard, and not be 
over scrupulous in his work. There is dirty work 
to be done ; but since there are tens of thousands 
whose ardent longings are fixed on offices or jobs, 
and among them thousands of men who are by no 
means of the most respectable sort, (or to say it 
clearly out, a multitude of needy, greedy, unprin- 
cipled men,) so there is no lack of willing hands to 
do the work which the upper leaders see needful to 
be done but may not quite like to do themselves. 

So the contest goes on — with most admirable 
perfection of organization of every sort of influence 
— managing committees everywhere, general, state, 
county and town ; newspapers established, bought, 
subsidized ; pamphlets, speeches, and documents 
dispersed everywhere, printed paper enough to cover 
three or four-fold thick every square foot of land 



EVIL CONSEQUENCES. 313 

throughout the country— in short, the whole mighty 
enginery of the press organized and set in motion, 
teeming with appeals to the ignorance, and prejudices, 
and passions of the people, stirring them up to the 
height of partisan excitement ; while, to intensify 
the excitement in the breasts of the masses, more 
apt to be stirred by the living voice than by the 
printed word, rival hosts of demagogue orators and 
smart stipendiary lecturers spread themselves over 
the length and breadth of the country, haranguing 
the people in all sorts of assemblies, ward meetings, 
town meetings, county meetings and monster mass 
meetings where men are counted by acres and not 
by numbers. And probably there are more calcu- 
lated lies (to say nothing of a considerable amount 
of perjury and false swearing) perpetrated in the 
United States to serve the ends of parties during a 
" Presidential Campaign/' than in all the rest of 
the world for any political purpose in a dozen years. 

Hundreds of thousands of dollars are moreover 
staked in bets upon the issue, putting into ener- 
getic activity thousands of unscrupulous agents 
moved by cupidity, or by the mere gambling spirit 
that seeks to win for the winning's sake. 

Then, to get at the baser sorts, whom the in- 
flammatory influence of the press or partisan speech- 
14 



314 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

making cannot make serviceable, a host of stipen- 
diary tools, bought with money or with promises 
of offices or jobs, are everywhere zealously at work 
in all grog-shops and hells before the day, and at 
the polls on the great day of choosing the Presi- 
dential electors — venal buyers of venal votes at a 
dollar a head or more, as the case may be. Every- 
body knows, or has moral certainty of conviction, 
that immense sums are thus spent in buying votes, 
especially the votes of that admirable class of free 
voters, our adopted and recently imported citizens. 
An edifying spectacle of the working of democratic 
institutions, and of the sacred right of universal 
suffrage ! 

In the hot ferments of our Presidential elections 
all the social froth and scum of the nation are 
brought to the top of the seething cauldron. All 
the worst elements, the most disreputable members 
of society, the bankrupt in character and good name, 
blacklegs and blackguards, loom up into loathsome 
prominence and activity. Bullies and rowdies 
throng the voting places, making them scenes of 
drunken violence and vulgar brutalities, destroying 
the propriety and obstructing the business of the 
polls, disgusting the decent, and frightening the 



EVIL CONSEQUENCES. 315 

feeble, the aged, and the timid, from the exercise 
of their rights and duties.' 1 ' 

In short, looking at this whole party-managing, 
people-managing, press-using, vote-buying system, 
it is scarcely possible to imagine any thing more 
powerful to corrupt the public and private morals 
of a nation, to eat out of the heart of a people all 
reverence for law and justice, truth and righteous- 
ness — all sense of the sacredness of any thing in 
heaven or on earth. 

Meanwhile, as part and parcel, cause and effect 
of these processes of popular demoralization, the 
halls of Congress and of the State Legislatures are 
filled, not with the best, but with the most availa- 
ble men for party ends ; and we have caucus rec- 
ommendations, resolutions offered and speeches 
made, with a view to affect the issue of the Presi- 
dential contest — all this tending to lower the tone, 
impair the dignity and corrupt the integrity of our 
legislators, and to interfere with the proper legisla- 
tive business of the States and of the nation. If 
it were not for this business of President making, 
all the proper legislative business of the nation in 
Congress might be better done in half the time. 

* See at the end of this volume the development of an organ- 
ized system of violence and brutal outrage far surpassing any thing 
suggested above, brought to light since the above was written. 



316 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

Then, too, the weight of Executive influence is 
generally thrown into the scale of one or the other 
of the great contending parties ; the whole vast 
army of official functionaries is put under the ne- 
cessity, willingly or unwillingly, of giving their 
votes, their influence, and a tax on their salaries to 
secure the victory of the favored party ; and ordi- 
narily the chances are ten to one in favor of the 
success of the party that can command the influ- 
ence of the Executive, with the Treasury at his 
back. We say ordinarily, for it is only in great 
exigencies which reach the universal pocket of the 
nation, or in the rarer cases when the sense of pub- 
lic interest and the sense of public right conspire 
to arouse the great heart and conscience of the na- 
tion, and to break down all old party lines and 
party disciplines — it is only in such great emergen- 
cies that the odds are not almost sure to the party 
in power. 

Meantime, what the influence of all this is upon 
the candidates for the Presidency it is easy to see. 
When the nominations for President were made in 
the great party conventions, the question was not 
about the best man for the office, but about the 
best man for party success. The candidate selected 
was obliged to stretch himself, or to contract him- 



EVIL CONSEQUENCES. 317 

self upon the platform framed for him, and stands 
— lies we should say— before the country the candi- 
date of a party. 

The successful candidate in entering upon office 
has until lately found it proper to repudiate in de- 
cent formulas of phrase the notion of administer- 
ing the government merely as the chief of a party. 
It is not thought needful to make any such dis- 
claimer now. But whether he does or not, he en- 
ters upon office bound to administer the govern- 
ment in the interests of his party — pledged to re- 
ward the party leaders who placed him in power, 
and on whom he must depend for support, and so 
with every temptation to a corrupt use of the pow- 
er and patronage of his office. Claimants come 
clamoring thick around him. The eagles, and all 
obscene birds of prey — kites, hawks, and carrion 
crows — gather to the sharing of the spoils. Per- 
sons whom no honest man would like to shake 
hands with, or introduce to his wife and daughters, 
are received at the White House, and go out re- 
warded with public -places. Men, whom in the 
neighborhood of their own homes nobody would 
trust, are put in offices of public trust. The de- 
mands of political parties allow but little scope for 
delicacies of private taste or scrupulous regards of 
any sort. 



318 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

But the worst effect of our system upon the re- 
lations of political parties to the administration of 
the Government remains to be noticed. 

In the theory of the working of constitutional 
governments, political parties have an important 
place. They may and should have a wholesome 
influence, as a means of maintaining the intergrity 
of the Constitution, the independence of its coor- 
dinate powers, and in protecting the country against 
abuses of Executive power. But under our actual 
system, these legitimate, conservative influences are 
nearly lost, and almost nothing is left but the evils 
necessarily incident to the existence of parties ; 
indeed, political parties have become a source of 
the greatest possible danger, through the natural 
disposition of the great mass of the members of 
the dominant party throughout the country to ac- 
quiesce in, to approve and sustain whatever is done 
by the man whom they have placed at the head of 
the nation. In their eyes he stands there the chief 
of their party ; that party is the majority of the 
people ; it is all right, in their notion, that their 
will should prevail. The President is the reflection 
of their will. They have triumphed in his election ; 
he is the eminent proclamation and embodied rep- 
resentation of their triumph ; and so what he wills 



EVIL CONSEQUENCES. 319 

they are naturally predisposed to uphold— at all 
events, through the strictness of party discipline 
that has come to prevail and the interests of party 
managers and Government officials who share in 
the spoils of victory, the great body of the rank 
and file of the triumphant party may be generally 
led to approve and sustain the course of Executive 
will. 

Thus supported by party majorities, with tre- 
mendous powers of corruption through the offices 
and jobs at his disposal, and thereby able to wield 
an immense influence in retaining and acquiring 
the support he may in any emergency need, what 
is to prevent his initiating and controlling the leg- 
islative business of the country, and so subverting 
the constitutional balance of power ? Is there no 
room to fear even for the integrity of the judicial 
functions ? And what have we then — with all the 
forms of the Kepublic — what have we in effect 
but an Executive despotism ? It matters not in 
what way, however indirect, the legislation of a 
country comes to be controlled by the Executive 
power. It matters not in what way the Judiciary 
is made subservient. After the Book of Judges 
comes the Book of Kings, said that eccentric man, 
but sharp-sighted political seer, John Kandolph of 
Boanoke. 



320 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

We have already seen significant tokens of the 
tendency in this direction. " I am the State/' said 
Louis XIV. " I am the People/' said in effect an 
iron-willed President in the name of the Democracy 
of whose will he proclaimed himself the represent- 
ative and embodied reflection. He shrank not 
from threatening the existence of the Senate as " a 
concession to the aristocratic principle/' and an ob- 
stacle to the free course of the popular will ; and 
at that day the suggestion was even made to sub- 
vert the independence, and thereby the constitu- 
tional existence, of the Federal Judiciary, by ren- 
dering the Judges removable at Executive pleas- 
ure. No attempt was made, that I am aware of, 
to carry these suggestions out. Perhaps they were 
only the passionate utterance of thwarted self-will. 
Perhaps it was concluded that the means already 
existing might be made sufficient for securing the 
objects of predominant parties. I mention them 
only as significant of the impulse lying in the na- 
ture of victorious party spirit, and of the tendency 
to the absorption of the powers of the State into 
the Supreme Executive. 

Since that time twenty years have passed away, 
and the tendency to the centralization of power 
has not diminished. It has gone on increasing. 



EVIL CONSEQUENCES. 321 

The convenient words and phrases which mark the 
progress of things in this direction are familiar to 
all. There are some persons who profess a great 
contempt for words : they go for things. Eight, 
undoubtedly, if only they do not fall into the mis- 
take of converting a partial and conditional truth 
into a universal and absolute one. For words are 
also things — and sometimes tremendous things. 
And political words and phrases are a surer index 
to the direction in which a nation's destiny is 
moving than unthinking persons dream. When 
the celebrated phrase, " to the victors belong the 
spoils/' was first announced in application to our 
politics, it was thought the inauguration of a mon- 
strous doctrine, at variance with all constitutional 
principles of righteous administration. It has be- 
come now the settled doctrine and practice of all 
parties ; and thousands who shrank from defending 
it then, do not think it needs defending now. 

We have all become familiar with a mode of 
speaking which has of late come more and more to 
prevail — by which the Executive, under the terms, 
the Government, the Administration, is put into 
prominence and distinction above the co-ordinate 
powers of the State. The policy, the plans, and 

even the personal wishes of the President in regard 
14* 



322 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

to legislative measures, are spoken of as something 
that ought to have a prevailing influence upon the 
legislation of the country. And we have at length 
come to see the Executive, not merely submitting 
to Congress such recommendations as the Consti- 
tution makes it his right and duty to offer, not 
merely asking for such legislation as the discharge 
of his proper Executive functions may, in any case, 
make specially needful, but virtually initiating and 
pressing great legislative measures which are prop- 
erly and exclusively within the sphere of the inde- 
pendent action of Congress, and with which he has 
rightfully nothing to do except in the sequel of 
their action. And we hear of the obligation to 
sustain the President in such cases as the para- 
mount obligation of the party in power. It is 
made the test of fealty to the party ; and fealty to 
the party is made the sole obligation of legislators 
— not fealty to the great political principles or 
measures that may be adopted by a party, and to 
which a candidate for a seat in Congress may be 
honorably called on to avow his fealty beforehand, 
and to make good his profession afterward ; but 
implicit, unqualified obedience to the behests of 
party discipline and to the mere will of party lead- 
ers and their chief on all questions and under all 
circumstances. 



EVIL CONSEQUENCES. 323 

" It will not do/' says one of the organs of the 
present Administration (I do not say an authorized 
exponent of the mind of the Executive), " it will 
not do for a man to say, i I differ from the Presi- 
dent on this single point/ It will not do to differ 
on that single point/' A hundred similar utter- 
ances of the press — pending the so-called Lecomp- 
ton struggle — might be adduced. The official or- 
gan itself (as it is termed) was not less strong to 
the same effect. It poured out reprobation and 
threats upon all recusants. And what is worst of 
all, on the floor of Congress, from the representa- 
tives of the people, speaking in their places, we 
have heard the same obligation of implicit sub- 
mission to the President's will openly proclaimed, 
and the presumption of legislators in claiming the 
right to distinguish between the President's right 
to recommend and his right to command, boldly de- 
nounced as " the language of rebellion ! "* Is not 
this atrocious ?. Is it easy to imagine a greater 
outrage on the independence and dignity of the Na- 
tional Legislature, or a more destructive blow at 
the integrity of the Constitution and the balance 
of its great co-ordinate powers, than is contained 

* See report of debates in the House of Representatives, Fri- 
day, March 25, 1858. 



324 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

in such an utterance ? It matters not to say it 
may have been a thoughtless exaggeration of 
phrase^ not to be strictly construed as a deliberate 
assertion of the doctrine and duty of implicit sub- 
serviency to Executive dictation. It is any way an 
unqualified assertion of the doctrine. And when 
such a doctrine can be proclaimed in such a place, 
and the man that proclaims it, no matter how 
thoughtlessly, is not put down, or put out, by one 
immediate, spontaneous, simultaneous uprising of 
righteous displeasure — I have only to say it is to 
me a significant token of the centralized absolutism 
toward which we are tending. It marks off the 
measure of many a mile of national descent on the 
road downward since the days of Washington. 

It is meantime matter of universal belief that 
some of the most important legislative acts that 
have been passed within the last few years, have 
been passed under the pressure of Executive influ- 
ence. They have been urged as Administration 
measures, and it is a matter of common assertion, 
and of universal conviction, that the whole im- 
mense force of the Executive has been brought to 
bear upon their passage. Whether the charge of 
using the Executive patronage to corrupt the legis- 
lation of Congress be true or not ; whether it can 



EVIL CONSEQUENCES. 325 

be established by legal and technical proof or not, 
I do not undertake to say. It is asserted on all 
hands. It is universally believed to be true. I do 
not suppose there is a man of any intelligence 
throughout the country that entertains the slight- 
est moral doubt on the matter. Pending the pas- 
sage of the bill for the admission of Kansas into 
the Union under the Lecompton Constitution, the 
corrupt influence of the Executive was everywhere 
talked of — not only by the opponents of the meas- 
ure, as a thing to be feared, but by those who fa- 
vored it as the ground of their hopes ; arid the 
fact of its exertion was admitted on all hands. 

And worst of all is the fact that so many seem 
to think this all a matter of course — that things, 
which in the days of Washington would have been 
looked upon with horror, are now regarded with 
comparative unconcern, not merely by the great 
host of unprincipled politicians, for they do not 
care at all, but by the great mass of the people 
throughout the country. This is the worst feature 
of the case. Nothing so decisively and shockingly 
marks our national degeneracy, and the depths to 
which we have sunk, as the almost universal apa- 
thy with which things that nobody seriously de- 
fends, which everybody admits to be corrupt, fla- 



326 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

gitious, and dangerous to the liberties of the coun- 
try, are acquiesced in as things of course — things 
which may be lamented but cannot be prevented — 
things that must be let go on, each party making 
the most it can for itself in the corrupt scramble ; 
and, as for the country, why the country must not 
trouble itself too much about what cannot be 
helped. It is a great country. It will take a great 
deal of bad government to ruin it. It will last 
some time yet. Its pockets are not much meddled 
with — certainly not in a direct way — it does not 
feel the draft made upon them. And meantime it 
has a great " manifest destiny " to fulfil. It will 
not do to be too scrupulous and squeamish. All 
governments are corrupt, especially all free govern- 
ments. Human nature is no better than it should 
be. What is the use of being always on the alarm ? 
Laissez aller : let things go, and keep out of the 
way. 

Well, if nine-tenths of the politicians, and of 
the people too, talk in this way, I do not know that 
there is much use in saying any thing ; only he who 
blows the warning blast has ease of conscience, 
whatever betides. 

I have thus sketched what seem to me the per- 



EVIL CONSEQUENCES. 327 

nicious influences of our system of President 
making upon the people, and upon all public func- 
tionaries, and its tendency to overthrow the Consti- 
tutional balance of power, and to consolidate a 
central absolutism supported by party majorities 
resting on a demoralized people — with all the forms 
of the republic serving only to hold the nation 
more inextricably entangled in the vast net-work 
of corrupt officials and political managers, spread- 
ing its infinite inevitable meshes outward from the 
centre all over the land. That such is the actual 
influence of our system, such the direction in which 
we are moving, and such the inevitable result of 
unchecked progress in this direction, is a truth to 
which, in my opinion, no wise statesman, no pro- 
found student of human nature and human history, 
can shut his eyes. And judging of the future by 
the past (which, though not an absolute canon of 
political prophecy, is yet, to a certain extent, a 
sound one), and looking to the growth of the coun- 
try, and the constantly augmenting patronage of 
the Executive, what else can be expected but a 
constant and rapid increase of these evils and dan- 
gers ? A certain stage of degeneracy reached, the 
road downward is trodden with accelerated speed. 
I do not mean to maintain that our system of 



328 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

President making has been the sole and only cause 
of the corruption and degeneracy I have sketched. 
It is doubtless effect as well as cause. In all gov- 
ernments — and in free governments most of all — 
the tendency to corruption is such that no mode 
of constituting the Federal Executive could give 
us absolute exemption from such or similar evils 
and dangers. But our actual mode of doing it has 
furnished a special basis, supplied peculiar condi- 
tions, temptations, means and facilities for the 
growth and action of corruption, such as would not 
have existed if the intention of the Constitution 
in this matter had been strictly adhered to. 

Special causes may also have concurred to in- 
crease the corrupt working of our actual system. 

Chief among these is the institution of slavery, 
and the invincible determination of the slavehold- 
ing States to possess and control the Federal Gov- 
ernment for the defence and aggrandizement of 
that institution. Subordinating every thing else to 
this, and holding the balance between the great 
Northern parties, the policy of the Southern States 
has always been to make entire subserviency to the 
interests of slavery the price of that alliance, with- 
out which no party could come into power, to secure 
a President bound to do their will in the exercise 



EVIL CONSEQUENCES. 329 

of his Executive functions, and through him to 
controFalso the action of Congress, always at least 
negatively through the veto power, by preventing 
any unsatisfactory legislation, and positively, also, 
so far as Executive influence can go to secure posi- 
tive legislation in the interests of slavery. With 
such a policy, it is not wonderful the Southern 
States have had the sagacity to see and the skill to 
avail themselves of the peculiar advantages our ac- 
tual system of President making affords for the fur- 
therance of their paramount object. 






PRESIDENT MAKING. 



LETTER III.— ARE THERE ANY REMEDIES? 



My dear Sir : We have looked at the evils 
and dangers that environ us — where shall we look 
for remedies ? Upon what can we rely to check 
the progress of corruption and the downward course 
of national degeneracy ? 

Is it the intelligence and virtue of the great 
honest masses which make up the heart and con- 
science of the country ? 

There is enough of it, no doubt — particularly 
" off the pavements," as an eminent statesman is 
wont to say —there is enough of it, if only it could 
have scope and sway. But how to get it to have 
scope and sway ? It is unable now to withstand 
the bad working of our political system. It is not 



ARE THERE \NY REMEDIES ? 331 

strong enough now to stem the tide of political 
corruption. This we see. And how to make it 
stronger ? It is now the dupe of party managers 
— all the more serviceable because it serves their 
ends with a good conscience. This is a point 
greatly to be observed. The intelligence and virtue 
of the country — whatever it be — serves the ends of 
party managers all the more serviceably in propor- 
tion as it is duped into thinking them all right. 
Its very heart and conscience thus become an ele- 
ment of strength in the hands of party leaders ; 
and so the intelligence and virtue of the great hon- 
est masses — which certainly is their own individual 
salvation — does not become the source of a con- 
trolling public virtue for the political salvation of 
the country. Besides, nothing in the world tends 
so powerfully to a constant deterioration of the 
public morals of a nation as the corrupt working of 
political institutions. How to turn the tide ? 

The Press, is it said — the Free Press — the great 
palladium of a nation's liberties ? That is a fine 
formula. It has a gr'and sound. But I do not look 
for political regeneration from that quarter. The 
Press ! Why, how much of wholesome truth and 
sound doctrine do the people get from the party 
press — which is pretty nearly all the press there is, 



332 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

so far as the political education of the people is 
due to the press ? It feeds them on falsehoods and 
fallacies, morning, noon, and night. The only con- 
solation is that the more intelligent of the people 
have come to understand this, and to believe little 
or nothing merely because it is said by the party 
press. But these persons are an ineffectual minor- 
ity. As to the great masses, how is it ? One half 
of the press is the tool of one party ; the other half, 
of the other party. The great mass of one party 
scarcely read any thing said by the press of the 
other party, and believe nothing it says. They 
read their own party half of the press, and believe 
all it says. I look upon the political party press 
as it works with us, in spite of certain good uses it 
serves, as on the whole very injurious to the moral 
spirit of the nation. On neither hand does it, as a 
general thing, state facts truly, or favor or oppose 
public men and measures fairly. But what is worse 
still, on neither hand does it preach those great les- 
sons of political truth and political duty which 
ought to be preached to a free people, and which 
must in some wag be effectually learned in order to 
prevent such a government as ours from becoming 
the ivorst and most dangerous of all forms of gov- 
eminent. On the contrary, both sides of the party 



ARE THERE ANY REMEDIES ? 333 

press vie with each other in flattering and cajoling 
the people with watchwords and phrases addressed 
to their passions and prejudices, tending to beget 
in them an exaggerated sense of rights and a feeble 
sense of duties — to make them feel that the sover- 
eignty of the people is rightfully a sovereignty of 
mere will, that the right of the majority to have 
its own will and way at all events and in any way, 
is a sacred inviolable right which only aristocrats 
and tyrants can call in question, and to question 
which is a monstrous outrage on the principles of 
eternal justice. 

But an independent Press — it may be said — 
not in the interest of parties, a press that shall 
boldly and ably preach the principles of political 
truth and righteousness, state facts truly, canvass 
public men and measures fairly, and warn the peo- 
ple of the evils and dangers that surround us, and 
of the direction in which the nation is drifting on- 
ward ? 

Well, how is such a press to be had ? Who is 
to establish it ? Who to sustain it ? And what 
is to be its influence ? How is it to reach and dis- 
abuse the great masses of the people whose minds 
are abused by the party press ? It would have so 
many things to say unpalatable to the popular 



334 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

taste. It would go hard for it to get the popular 
ear. It would have both sides of the party press 
against it. And as to the party in power, what 
would they care ? They would laugh at its preach- 
ings and denunciations of political corruption ; they 
would even like thein. It is a safety-valve in the 
State machinery under their control. Edmund 
Burke tells us that when Eome was in its most 
servile state, the destruction of tyrants was the 
common theme of boys in the schools. The ty- 
rants felt strong enough to let it go so. 

But Christianity — the influence of its spirit and 
principles ? 

Undoubtedly, if only they could permeate and 
actuate the political life of the country. But the 
Christianity of our country — that body of convic- 
tions and sentiments, observances and practices, 
which passes for Christianity among us — is for the 
most part made to run on at a safe distance from 
the political course of things, rarely coming into 
contact with it. It is graciously permitted, indeed, 
to subserve the ends of politicians by proclaiming 
the great doctrine and duty of " rendering to Caesar 
the things that are Caesar's." But if in any unlucky 
moment it is moved to condemn and denounce the 
conduct of parties and the action of Government, 



ARE THERE ANY REMEDIES ? 335 

it gets well snubbed for its pains, and is bidden to 
mind its own business and not to " meddle with 
politics " — above all, not to preach " sedition and 
rebellion ; " for law is law, and a very sacred thing 
it is ; and " the powers that be are ordained of 
God/' and Christianity must be careful not to talk 
about any Higher Law than human law, and not to 
tell the people that there can be such a thing as an 
unjust law, or a corrupt judge, or an atrocious act 
of Government — at all events, it must be careful 
to say nothing of this sort in any case where the 
interests of slaveholding are in any way concerned. 

I for one do not expect political salvation from 
any such Christianity as we have now, or, for aught 
I see, are likely to have for some time to come. 
Indeed, were it ten times more disposed than it is 
to grapple with the political corruption of the na- 
tion, I should have little hope of its effecting much. 
He who runs a race with the Evil One, we are told, 
must needs have long legs. We have no reason to 
expect any miraculous lengthening of our Chris- 
tianity for such a race'; and its ordinary powers — 
what guaranty for their effectual competition in the 
future do we find in the past ? 

Besides, the Christianity of every country is 
practically what it is taken to be ; and the Chris- 



336 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

tianity of our country is singularly unfitted for the 
race in question, from the fact that in its relations 
to public evils it has two faces, two voices, looks 
two ways, has two sets of legs, which run, or strive to 
run, in contrary directions, producing a dead lock, 
which gives the Evil One a clear field and an easy 
triumph. A great " Revival of Religion," is said to 
have spread throughout the land. But, without 
intending any disrespect to it, I must say that I do 
not much expect it will make the religion of the 
country any more a Christianity with one face, and 
one voice, looking and running in one direction, or 
with any more powerful influence in arresting the 
progress of political corruption than heretofore. 

To what, then, are we to look ? If anywhere, 
we must, it seems to me, look mainly to political 
influences, to changes in the working of our politi- 
cal system — partly as they may be forced upon us 
by future exigencies in public affairs, and partly as 
they may result from social changes under the 
gradual operation of economical and other histori- 
cal causes. 

I say political influences, political changes — for 
no causes act more powerfully upon the political 
character of a nation than the working of its polit- 



ARE THERE ANY REMEDIES ? 337 

ical institutions. A practical departure from the 
intention of the Constitution, in the way we have 
seen, has been the great cause of the evils and 
dangers I have sketched ; and these evils and dan- 
gers, in their most peculiar and worst aspects, 
would in a great measure disappear, could the pro- 
visions of the Constitution be truly and thor- 
oughly established in practical operation through- 
out the country. But it is idle to expect the choice 
of President will now ever come to be made in 
strict conformity with the original intention of the 
Constitution. It may be thought equally idle to 
expect any determinate and very beneficial altera- 
tions in our system. Still, it is possible to suggest 
changes which it would be wise and salutary to 
adopt. 

Various suggestions have been made with a view 
to reduce the patronage of the President, and so, 
on the one hand, to diminish the means and temp- 
tations to a corrupt and dangerous use of official 
power, yet without taking from him those powers 
which must on all sound principles be vested in the 
Executive ; and, on the other hand, proportionably 
to diminish the demoralizing influences of the Pres- 
idential elections. 

Of this sort is the election of Postmasters by 
15 



338 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

the people of the towns and districts where post- 
offices are established — the persons thus elected 
giving proper securities to the General Government, 
and held to proper responsibilities to it. 

Even the abolition of the Post Office system, 
as a department of the General Government, has 
been proposed — thus leaving the transmission of 
letters and other mail matter to the general laws 
of business. 

Either of these schemes is practicable ; the lat- 
ter is the preferable one. There is little room to 
doubt that private enterprise could accomplish as 
well and more cheaply what the General Govern- 
ment accomplishes through the Post Office Depart- 
ment. This Department is not now a necessity 
either for the Government or for the country, as it 
was once. The electric telegraph has already su- 
perseded its functions to an immense extent. A 
vast proportion of the commercial and other inter- 
course of the country is carried on by this means. 
This will be more and more the case. And what 
the telegraph cannot convey, the express companies 
can carry as well and as cheaply as the General 
Government — more so, in the opinion of the best 
judges. I have the authority of a late high public 
functionary (one of the best authorities in the coun- 






ARE THERE ANY REMEDIES ? 339 

try on such matters) for saying that the material 
interests of the country would not suffer but be 
benefited by the abolition of the Post Office De- 
partment. 

So, too, the suggestion has been made to do 
away with our whole revenue system — leaving for- 
eign commerce free from all customs duties and 
imposts, and providing for the expenses of the Gov- 
ernment by direct taxation. This also is a practi- 
cable scheme. The collection of the taxes might 
be committed to the United States Marshals, who 
might employ the agency of the collectors of State 
taxes in their several districts, both taxes being 
collected at the same time. In this way, the ex- 
pense of collecting the revenue of the United 
States, which now amounts to seven per cent., 
would, in the opinion of the same eminent authori- 
ty before referred to, be reduced to one per cent. ; 
this, whether so or Hot, is, however, a point of com- 
paratively trifling importance. 

Whether these changes are likely to be adopted 
is not the question now. One thing is certain, that 
if adopted they would greatly diminish the means 
of corruption in the hands of the Executive. It 
ought to be expected, too, that the people would 
look more closely after the expenditure of the pub- 



340 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

lie money — feeling it drawn directly from their 
pockets ; and that the appropriation of immense 
sums to be profligately wasted in extravagant pay- 
ment for jobs and contracts given in reward of the 
services of political managers, would not be tole- 
rated. This ought to be expected ; and would to a 
certain extent be the case, although the working of 
universal suffrage among the great masses who pay 
no taxes, suggests a doubt whether it would be so 
to the extent it ought to be. But at all events, a 
very large number of offices now in the President's 
gift — objects of greedy desire and strenuous scram- 
ble among the hordes of office-seeker3 — would cease 
to exist ; and the corrupting excitements of the 
Presidential elections would be correspondingly les- 
sened. 

Modifications of our political system, such as I 
have mentioned, may possibly be accomplished in 
the course of time, through the pressure of public 
exigencies in peculiar (perhaps disastrous) emer- 
gencies, or through the influence of economical and 
social changes, wrought out by the progress of sci- 
ence and the arts of life, and in their turn acting 
necessarily upon the administration of political af- 
fairs. 



ARE THERE ANY REMEDIES ? 341 

But there is one other suggestion still. Since 
it is precisely the popular election of the President 
which the Constitution was framed to prevent ; 
since the subversion of this intention is precisely 
the great and special source of national demorali- 
zation and danger — would it not be wise to adopt 
some method of filling the Executive office by which 
the intention of the Constitution in this respect 
shall be effectually accomplished ? I think so. I 
think a method may be devised perfectly practica- 
ble in itself, and wanting nothing but the will of 
the people to effect its accomplishment. This 
method may seem to run very little chance of ever 
getting practically accomplished through the will 
of the people : that may be a sufficient reason, as 
I have said, for a politic statesman not undertaking 
to accomplish it, but it is no reason whatever for 
sensible persons not entertaining the question 
whether it ought not to be accomplished, whether 
the people of the United States would not do well 
and wisely to adopt it. 

In case of vacancy in the Executive, suppose, 
then, that from the list of Senators of the United 
States, who have served one or two terms of office, 
one be taken by lot, under the direction of the 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and his Asso- 



342 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

ciates, in such public manner and with such forms 
and modes of proceeding as may be fitly prescribed 
to give proper guaranty and authentication to the 
procedure. Let the person thus designated become 
President for four or for six years, upon taking the 
prescribed oath in the usual way. 

This mode of filling the office is simple, practi- 
cable and safe, and would, I am sure, work far bet- 
ter than our present mode. Objections to it may 
possibly be conceived : no human contrivance in the 
matter of government but is liable to them ; al- 
though for myself I am free to avow my inability 
to see any valid and sufficient objection, or indeed 
any objection at all, except the single suggestion 
that the person thus designated may possibly not 
be the best man on the list for President. But this 
is an objection which, in substance, holds against 
any possible or conceivable mode of filling the of- 
fice ; while, on the other hand, the mode I have 
suggested has many obvious and undeniable advan- 
tages above any other scheme. 

In the first place, it would effectually accom- 
plish the intention of the Constitution in the par- 
ticular its framers had most at heart. It would 
prevent altogether what they especially designed to 
prevent — the evils and dangers, the turmoil and 



ARE THERE ANY REMEDIES ? 343 

demoralizing influences of a popular election, the 
corrupt intrigues of ambitious aspirants and party 
managers. Whatever of excitement would remain 
possible would be divided and localized in the sev- 
eral States in the choice of Senators. The possi- 
bility that a man elected to the Senate might be- 
come President of the United States should, and 
doubtless would, be a reason, additional to those 
now operating, for choosing for Senators men of 
high character and eminent abilities for the public 
service ; while the chances of a Senator actually 
coming into the office of President — less than one 
in a hundred now, and diminished by every new 
admission of a State into the Union — would not be 
great enough, nor near enough, to supply much mo- 
tive for corrupt practices and a dangerous excite- 
ment. The mischievous business of President-mak- 
ing, as it is now carried on, would be destroyed. 
The occupation of the President -making politicians 
would be gone. The whole pernicious race would 
become extinct — to the great comfort of honest 
men, and the great welfare of the country. 

Then again : who can doubt we should be full 
as likely to get in general as good a man for Presi- 
dent as we get now. I am quite clear the odds 
are in favor of getting a better man. The time for 



344 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

making our great men Presidents, under our pres- 
ent system, is gone by. No truly great and emi- 
nent public man, as things now are, runs much 
chance. There is almost always something in their 
position and past career to make them " unavaila- 
ble M — that is the word — in the judgment of party 
managers. An available candidate is the one thing 
needful. And so it is found a necessary policy to 
nominate military heroes, successful generals, or 
even persons of small public mark and without 
positive qualities, rather than great statesmen. A 
more biting piece of ironical sarcasm on the actual 
working of our system can scarcely be conceived 
than is contained in the language in which the 
framers of the Constitution gave expression to 
their elevated hopes on this point. "This process 
of election/' says the Federalist, " affords a moral 
certainty that the office of President will seldom 
fall to the lot of a man who is not in an eminent 
degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. 
Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of pop- 
ularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the 
first honors of a single State. But it will require 
other talents and a different kind of merit to estab- 
lish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole 
Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as will 



ARE THERE ANY REMEDIES ? 345 

be necessary to make him a successful candidate 
for the distinguished office of President of the 
United States."*: Shades of departed heroes, pa- 
triots and statesmen ! What a prophecy is this ! 
But then it is to be considered that Madison, and 
Hamilton, and Jay, when they indulged in this 
prophetic satisfaction, wrote under the delusive 
belief that the intention of the Constitution would 
be carried out, not frustrated ; that the President 
would be chosen by the concurrent votes of inde- 
pendent electors, casting their ballots under the 
sole responsibility of voting for the man they should 
find best fitted for the office, and that he would be 
a man commended to their choice by the sole fact 
of standing before the nation by general consent in 
the position of " pre-eminent ability and virtue." 

I do not hesitate then to say that by the mode I 
have suggested, we should be likely to get at least 
as fit a man for President as we get now. He 
would be a man who had had experience of public 
affairs, had enjoyed the confidence of a sovereign 
State, and filled a position of the highest public 
dignity and trust ; and he would be quite as likely 
to be a man of " pre-eminent ability and virtue," as 

* Federalist, No. 68. 



346 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

any one we can ordinarily expect to have under our 
present system. 

Then, too, he would have the advantage of com- 
ing into office unsullied by any complication with 
the corrupting processes of a popular election, ex- 
empt from all pledges or obligations to parties or 
persons, and from all such temptations to abuse his 
patronage, and free to administer the Government 
as President of the nation and not of a party. 
Abuse of power is still possible — power is never 
without temptations, and no man can be found not 
liable to fall. But it is certain he would be com- 
pletely exempted from an immense amount of temp- 
tations to which the Executive is now subjected. 
And as to the still remaining possibilities of a cor- 
rupt use of his official powers during the term of 
his office for ends of personal ambition — if the sug- 
gestions already made in regard to diminishing the 
patronage of the office should be carried into effect, 
the means of corruption and the dangers of Execu- 
tive interference with the constitutional balance of 
the powers of the State, would be still further re- 
duced. But whether those suggestions, or either 
of them, were adopted, it would still be true to say 
— and a great thing to be able to say with truth — 
that he would be comparatively shielded from the 



ARE THERE ANY REMEDIES ? 347 

baser sort of motives, and environed by all the bet- 
ter and nobler motives of his position — the high be- 
hests of public duty, and the honorable ambition to 
deserve the approbation of his country and the ap- 
plauding verdict of impartial history. 

Then, again, it is not a small advantage that 
the legislative bodies of the nation would be pro- 
tected from many of the evil influences of our pres- 
ent system. They would have nothing to do with 
the business of President making. Its intense and 
corrupting excitements could find no entrance to 
warp the integrity, impair the dignity, and inter- 
fere with the proper functions of legislative assem- 
blies. 

And, finally, it seems to me an improvement 
would be wrought in the character and working of 
the great political parties. Their differences and 
conflicts would not be about President making — 
they would be less about persons and more about 
great public principles and measures. Party spirit, 
we might reasonably hope, would become less bit- 
ter, passionate and -unscrupulous ; and the party 
press would reflect this improved tone — would be- 
come less pernicious and more salutary in its influ- 
ence on the public and private morals of the nation. 
The action of parties, in their relations to the Gen- 



348 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

eral Government and its administration, would be 
brought within its legitimate sphere, and would be 
more rational, conservative and beneficent upon the 
legislation of the country and upon the whole con- 
duct of public affairs. 

Such, it seems to me, would be the working of 
the plan suggested. It would be likely to give us 
a better government, a better administration of 
public affairs ; it would certainly prevent many of 
the worst evils and greatest dangers of our present 
system. " The mode of appointing the President/' 
says Chancellor Kent, " presented one of the most 
difficult and momentous questions that could have 
occupied the deliberations of the assembly that 
framed the Constitution ; and if ever the tranquil- 
lity of this nation is to be disturbed, and its peace 
jeoparded by a struggle for power, it will be upon 
this very subject of the choice of President. This 
is the question that is to test the goodness and try 
the strength of the Constitution."* 

So said this wise man many years ago. It is a 
warning of prophetic apprehension which every 
year's experience of the effects of subverting the 
Constitution in this matter, and of inaugurating, in 

* Kent Comment. III., 253. 



ARE THERE ANY REMEDIES ? 349 

the worst form, the very system it was designed to 
prevent, serves only to enforce. And nothing ap- 
pears so necessary as the adoption of some mode of 
effectually accomplishing the intention of the Con- 
stitution by putting an end to the constantly recur- 
ring party struggles for the election of the Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

If this could be done, what limits can be as- 
signed to the safe and beneficent extension of the 
Union ? With a General Government truly Fed- 
eral, and not consolidated — leaving to the States 
all State sovereignties and State rights, and the 
control of all State interests, and acting only as the 
agent of each and all in all matters of common con- 
cern ; thus giving to each member of the Union 
the strength of the whole at home, and the power, 
dignity and importance of the whole, as toward all 
the rest of the world — what is there to render un- 
safe the widest possible expansion of the Union ? 
With such means of intercommunication and liv- 
ing connection as steam and electricity now supply, 
what is there to prevent a Federal Union of sover- 
eign States throughout this whole Western hemi- 
sphere ? If ever, indeed, the vision of a politi- 
cal millennium shall be realized, it seems to me 
the problem will be solved by three words : Free 



350 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

Trade, State Eights, and a Federal Union of the 
World ! 

I conclude by again desiring it to be considered 
that the question is not whether the scheme sug- 
gested has any chance of getting practically real- 
ized, but whether it is not one that ought to be 
adopted ; one which the people of the United 
States would do well and wisely to adopt. 

Under the operation of the causes that are now 
at work, we cannot stand where we are. The act- 
ual working of our political system is more demor- 
alizing than that of any other government upon 
the face of the earth. I believe so, and therefore I 
say so. I think we have seen that it is so ; and 
there is reason why it should be so. It acts directly 
upon the great masses more than that of any other 
government. The imperial despotism of France, 
or of Kussia, for instance, does not tend to corrupt 
the people like our system — for the reason that 
there are properly no politics there as with us ; the 
great officers of state may be corrupt and practice 
stupendous corruptions, but the great masses of the 
people have very little to do with the government, 
except to be governed by it. They are deprived of 
political rights ; they pay taxes which they have no 



ARE THERE ANY REMEDIES ? 351 

voice in imposing. This is bad, no doubt. I do 
not advocate such a system ; but then it is unde- 
niably clear that they are not exposed to the temp- 
tations to political corruption, not subjected to the 
demoralizing influences which the possession of such 
rights would subject them to. But our Govern- 
ment comes into perpetual contact with the masses, 
touches them at all points, and reaches every indi- 
vidual. The people act upon the Government and 
are acted upon by it ; and the mutual action, we 
have seen, is corrupting — precisely through the 
immense scope and the immense temptations to 
corruption inevitably connected with the actual 
working of our political system. And things are 
going on from bad to worse ; and so I say we can- 
not stand where we are. Historical causes work 
slowly, but they work inevitably. If we do not get 
on better, we shall get on worse. Under the influ- 
ences that are now shaping our destiny, we may get 
on after a tolerable fashion for some time to come, 
but we shall not get on well. We are drifting 
toward the inevitable day of disaster upon the rocks 
of a lee shore. What will then be our fate ? 
Shall we then be able to wear off upon a safer tack, 
or shall the fragments of a shattered Union strew 
the shores of two oceans, a warning to the world 



352 PRESIDENT MAKING. 

never again to dream the fond dream of a great 
and permanent Kepublic, based upon democratic 
institutions and universal suffrage ? Who can un- 
roll the Book of Destiny, and tell us what is writ- 
ten there ? 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 



An immense outcry has of late been raised 
against what is called " clerical meddling with pol- 
itics ; " and no end of exhortations addressed to the 
clergy about the duty of confining themselves to 
their proper work of " preaching Christ Crucified/' 
" saving souls/' and the like. 

Much that is said on this matter is in itself un- 
worthy of serious notice, and might be safely enough 
left to find its sufficient refutation in the good 
sense of the intelligent portion of the public. But 
experience proves what a power of pernicious influ- 
ence lies in pious phrases constantly addressed to 
the religious feelings and prejudices of the less cul- 
tivated classes — especially when these phrases are 
adroitly framed to combine the twofold fallacy of 



356 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

begging the very question in issue, and of throwing 
odium upon all who do not immediately succumb 
to their fallacious application. 

Besides, in these much-abused commonplaces, 
there is always a part of truth, to which the fallacy 
owes its delusive force, and which needs to be dis- 
tinguished and accepted, in order to destroy the 
mischievous effect of their fallacious application. 
There is a right, and there is a wrong, in the mat- 
ter, which are commonly confounded. Let us try 
to make the proper distinctions, and to get at the 
truth on this subject. 

It will probably be conceded that clergymen, 
being men and citizens, as well as clergymen, have 
a right to feel an interest in all measures involving 
the welfare and right government of their country, 
and to give private expression to their views on all 
proper occasions and in all proper ways. The only 
question is as to their public conduct, whether per- 
sonal or official. 

On the one hand, it must be admitted, that by 
becoming a clergyman, a person is not divested of 
his rights, nor absolved from his duties as a citizen, 
any more than from those of his social and domes- 
tic relations. — On the other hand, it is equally 
clear, that the special obligations of his profession 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 357 

— the proprieties of his calling, and the preserva- 
tion of the peculiar influence of his office — impose 
limitations upon his public activity in political 
matters. ^Whatever personal part he may take in 
such matters, he must not forget his official charac- 
ter, and the duties it imposes. There are a great 
many things not improper in a layman which would 
be unbecoming in a clergyman. >*So every one feels. 
And it is for every clergyman a question of charity 
— and so of duty — as well as of prudence, in what 
way and to what extent he may allow himself to 
take part in political affairs, without violating the 
obligations or impairing the just influence of his 
office. To hold political office, or to put himself 
forward as a candidate for it, to take an active 
share in the business of organizing and managing 
parties, in the tactics by which the objects of indi- 
vidual ambition or the triumph of a party may be 
secured — in short, to " turn politician," in the just 
and ordinary meaning of the phrase, is as much at 
variance with the proper functions of the clerical 
office, as to turn stockjobber or innkeeper. If a 
clergyman's taste inclines this way, he must re- 
nounce his sacred calling, before engaging in these 
purely secular activities. 

But the important question is not so much 



358 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

about the personal as about the official conduct of 
the clergy in regard to public affairs. It is on the 
relation of Politics and the Pulpit. It is what is 
called " Political Preaching/' that is most com- 
monly and vehemently denounced as an unseemly 
" clerical meddling with politics/' 

On this matter there is likewise a very preva- 
lent confusion of right and wrong. No universal 
proposition on the subject holds good. Not every 
thing which may be denounced as political preach- 
ing is to be justified, and not every thing so de- 
nounced is to be surrendered to condemnation. 

There may, undoubtedly, be a wrong sort of po- 
litical preaching, at variance with the proper func- 
tions of the pulpit. Matters simply and purely 
political or economical — questions on the organiza- 
tion of the public powers ; on points of constitu- 
tional law ; on trade, finance and revenue ; on the 
policy of protective duties or internal improve- 
ments, and the parties and party conflicts that may 
grow out of them — these, and such like matters, 
lying wholly within the domain of political expe- 
diency, have no proper place in the sacred desk. 
Preaching about such matters is political preach- 
ing in a justly reprehensible sense. We feel no 
call to defend it, or to apologize for it. We sur- 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 359 

render it to all the odium any one may choose to 
heap upon it. 

But on the other hand, there is such a thing as 
political preaching — what is often so called — that 
ought not to be abandoned to the invidious appli- 
cation of the phrase. It is not political preaching 
in any justly odious sense. It is preaching Chris- 
tianity in its relations to the political life of the 
nation. It is enforcing the spirit and principles of 
the Christian -religion in their necessary application 
to the duties of citizens and the conduct of public 
affairs. It does not meddle with political ques- 
tions which are purely and wholly such, and to 
which the principles and precepts of Christianity 
stand in no relation and have no application. It 
deals only with political questions which are at 
the same time religious and moral in themselves, 
or in their consequences, or to which, in themselves, 
or in the manner of their practical determination, 
the principles of religion and morals have a neces- 
sary application, and it treats all such questions 
only from the point of view of the Christian re- 
ligion. 

This sort of " political preaching" — if men will 
so call it — is not to be surrendered to condemna- 
tion. It is not at variance with the proper func- 



360 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

tions of the pulpit. It belongs to them. We justify 
it. We vindicate its legitimate rights. 

Yet this is precisely the sort of preaching poli- 
ticians have raised the outcry against. The other 
and really indefensible sort — the discussion of purely 
secular topics in a purely secular spirit — is, in point 
of fact, a merely imaginary thing ; at least, we 
never heard of it as actually preached in any pul- 
pit. Be this as it may, it is not this that corrupt 
politicians stigmatize. It is the application of the 
principles of Christianity to the criticism of public 
affairs, it is the enforcement of men's Christian du- 
ties as citizens, that they wish to repress. They 
have spared no pains therefore to render it odious — 
by raising a hue and cry against it — a clamor of 
watchwords, some addressed to the pious sentiments 
of the religious, and some to the prejudices and 
passions of the profane. 

In this way a false and pernicious opinion has 
come quite widely to prevail, which the clergy 
themselves too generally give in to — some, because 
they are imposed upon by the fallacies it rests on ; 
some, from scruples about impairing their power to 
do good, by going counter to the current of opinion, 
even when they know it to be false ; some, from 
fear of incurring odium, or displeasing the laity in 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 361 

whose pockets their livelihood lies ; and some, sim- 
ply because it is their nature to imbibe, without 
reflection, the opinions that pass current around 
them, according to what old Jeremy Taylor says : 
" It is the iniquity of men that they suck in opin- 
ion as the wild asses do the wind, without distin- 
guishing the wholesome from the corrupted air, 
and then live upon it at a venture/' 

We say false and pernicious opinion ; for noth- 
ing in the world can be less grounded in reason, or 
more mischievous in its influence, than the opinion 
which makes it odious for the Christian minister to 
preach the sort of political preaching we have sig- 
nalized as belonging to the functions of the pulpit, 
and which alone we are concerned to justify. 

What principle does this opinion go upon ? At 
bottom it can have no conceivable ground in reason, 
except this : that Christianity has absolutely noth- 
ing whatever in any way to do with politics — that 
the two things stand in no relations to each other. 
But is this doctrine true ? It is — provided there 
is nothing in the political action of men and gov- 
ernments which falls within the sphere of morals : 
otherwise, not. To hear some men talk, one would 
imagine they believed politics and morals to be en- 
tirely out of each other's sphere, heterogenous even, 
16 



362 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

and falling within no common sphere ; and conse- 
quently that it is as absurd to apply the moral 
judgments of Christianity to the maxims and prac- 
tices of politicians and parties, and to the conduct 
of governments, as it would be to apply them to 
the quarrels of cats and dogs, the turnings and 
doublings of the fox, or the predatory forays of a 
commonwealth of ants into the enclosures of aphides 
belonging to a neighboring commonwealth. 

But talk as men may, they cannot look such a 
doctrine in the face, and stand up to the affirma- 
tion of it. Politics do fall within the sphere of 
morals, not wholly, indeed — for there are matters 
in politics which are morally indifferent — but to a 
great extqnt and in a multitude of particulars : and 
morality is ever the same in essence, its principles 
are identical in every variety of application. You 
cannot have two standards of morality — one for 
public and political, and another for private and 
social life. 

Now we take for granted not only that the prin- 
ciples and precepts of Christianity embody an eth- 
ical code of the purest rational order, but that for 
the people of this country they are the supreme 
law of moral conduct, the paramount standard of 
moral judgment ; and therefore they have a legiti- 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 363 

mate application to every particular of political ac- 
tion of which the ideas of right and wrong are pred- 
icate. 

This application it is the business and duty of 
the Christian clergy to make. It belongs to the 
very idea of their calling, that they should preach 
Christianity in its integrity and completeness. 
What else is their function ? For what else do 
they exist as a body of official persons ? They are 
bound to preach, in due proportion, all the princi- 
ples and precepts of Christianity in all their appli- 
cations — to the public no less than to the private 
conduct of the people, to the action of government 
no less than to that of individuals. 

Besides, in every free government, and in pro- 
portion as it is free, the welfare of the nation de- 
mands this enforcement of Christianity upon the 
people at large. In other governments it may be 
enough for the rulers to understand and feel the 
obligations Christianity imposes upon them as 
rulers ; the popular teachings of the pulpit may be 
safely enough limited to instructions in piety and 
private morals. But where democratic institutions 
and universal suffrage prevail, the people are the 
rulers. They have political rights ; and it is all- 
important they should understand and feel that 



364 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

these rights are at the same time sacred duties, for 
the virtuous and faithful discharge of which they 
are responsible to their country and their God. 
The supreme power is in their hands, and it is infi- 
nitely important they should have a profound prac- 
tical conviction that the destiny of the nation de- 
pends on the way they exercise that power. A 
sovereign people may be the worst of all sovereigns. 
History has put on record at least one demonstra- 
tion of this truth, never through all time to be ef- 
faced. It is so trite a saying, that one is almost 
ashamed to repeat it — but it is so trite because it 
is so true — that the success of a popular govern- 
ment depends on the intelligence and virtue of the 
people. Coleridge would perhaps have tried to give 
emphatic point to it, by adding that it must be a 
virtuous intelligence and an intelligent virtue. 
But a mere unreflecting admission of this truth, in 
a bare theoretical way, is of no use. There are 
great moral lessons of political right and righteous- 
ness, which must be practically learned by the peo- 
ple, to be any effectual guaranty for the happiness 
of society, the success, safety, or permanent con- 
tinuance of a free government. 

It is infinitely important, therefore, in our coun- 
try, that the whole people should be instructed 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 365 

and enlightened in all that regards the just exercise 
of their political rights. It is infinitely important 
that the sacred duties, and the immense responsi- 
bilities, inseparable from the possession of those 
rights, should be taught and practically enforced, 
from the highest moral and Christian point of view. 

Now how are the people to get this instruction ? 

It will not do to leave them to political dema- 
gogues. Where the people are the sovereign, dem- 
agogues will be the courtiers, and like all courtiers, 
will flatter and cajole, in order to lead and control. 
They will never preach to the people the limita- 
tions which moral duty imposes upon their sov- 
ereignty. Like Richelieu they will make the sov- 
ereign absolute — and with the same end in view. 

Nor will it do to leave the people to the influ- 
ence of the popular press. The Press — that which 
especially so calls itself — is mostly a party press ; 
but whether so or not, it never has so pressed, and 
never will so press upon the people, the high mo- 
tives of Christian obligation which ought to govern 
them in the exercise of their political rights and 
duties, as to leave nothing needful and important 
for the pulpit to do in this respect. 

We do not mean in any sweeping way to dis- 
parage or undervalue the press. It may always be 



366 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

relied upon to expose and denounce political fraud 
and corruption in the conduct of the party it op- 
poses. It has also, irrespective of party relations, 
often lifted up its voice against public injustice, 
wrong and crime, in such a right honest, earnest, 
true moral and Christian way, as to shame the si- 
lence or feeble voice of the pulpit. 

But it too often happens that the press is not 
on the side of moral right. It too often goes for 
the wrong, excusing or defending it, concealing or 
denying the truth and facts of the case, or pervert- 
ing and distorting them — covering up the real is- 
sues and making false ones — corrupting or perplex- 
ing the moral sense by special pleadings, and so 
deluding and misleading the people. But apart 
from any such direct and positive corrupting influ- 
ence, the press is too apt to preach to the people 
of their rights, without a corresponding enforce- 
ment of the duties that go ever inseparably with 
them, and thus to nurse the people in an exagger- 
ated sense of rights and a feeble sense of duties — 
than which nothing can in the long run be more 
pernicious and dangerous. 

But it is needless to urge this point further. It 
is enough to say that if the press contributed a 
great deal more than it does to the right moral 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 367 

guidance of the people, the duty of the Christian 
clergy in the matter would not on that account be 
diminished ; while on the other hand, the undenia- 
bly defective and often pernicious influence of the 
press, renders the faithful discharge of their duty 
all the more important. 

And so there can be but one answer to the 
question, where should we look first and mainly for 
the people to get that instruction and admonition 
in political righteousness, which it is indispensably 
necessary they should have, in order to the safe 
working of democratic institutions. It is to the 
pulpit, whose very function it is to enforce moral- 
ity, the morality of the Christian religion — the 
highest and purest morality — in all its length and 
breadth and strictness. 

Besides, the opinion which would prohibit the 
pulpit from applying the principles and precepts of 
Christianity to politics, goes to the entire separa- 
tion of the political life of a nation from its moral 
and religious life — in any nation, that is, where the 
supreme power is in the body of the people — and 
the unity of a nation's life cannot, any more than 
that of an individual person, be thus divided with- 
out harm. This is not saying that civil govern- 
ments have their foundation, or their origin, in the 



36S POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

principles of religion or morals. We hold no such 
doctrine. We might admit even what Macaulay 

r 8j that " there is no sense in which religion can 
be said to be the basis of government, in which it 
is not also the basis of the practices of eating, 
drinking, and lighting fires in cold weather/' This 
may be quite true. The inconveniences of anarchy, 
and the necessity of social order, may be a suffi- 
cient basis for government and for the maintenance 
of jural relations, quite distinct from the principles 
of religion, or even of morals. But what then ? 
Would it follow that the action of government — 
and in a democratic government, the political con- 
duct of the people — should not be regulated and 
controlled by religious or moral principles, in order 

secure the very ends of expediency and advant- 
age for which governments exist ? Not at all. 
The practices of eating, drinking, and lighting fires 
in cold weather — and a thousand other practices, 
alike morally indifferent in themselves — must be 
thus regulated and controlled, or the gravest mis- 
chiefs will ensue. Divide the unity of our na- 
tional life ; cut off its politics from the permeating 

I actuating power of a pure moral and religious 
spirit ; and what is the consequence ? It is just a 
surrendering of the political life of the nation to 



POLITICS AXD THE PULPIT. 369 

the Evil One : and everybody knows what we mean, 
whether they believe in the existence of that per- 
sonage or d 

Besides, in such a case, there cannot be. or will 
not long be. any true religious and moral life in the 
nation. To give up one -half of a nation's practi- 
cal lite to the Devil, and yet save the other half to 
God. is a problem of impossible accomplishment. 
The upshot of the attempt to serve Grod and Mam- 
mon is that Mammon becomes the ouly God that 
> served: the service of the True God becomes 
inevitably an hypocrisy and a sham. 

And as to morals — there is nothing history more 
undeniably demc . than that public corrup- 

tion, in a country like ours, sooner or later, eats 
out the very heart of the private morals of a na- 
tion. How long will truth and honor, virtue and 
justice, prevail in the private relations of a people 
politically unprincipled, corrupt and '. 
There may always be righteous men — more or : 
— even in Sodom : but no pure moral law can long 

he actuating principle of the private life of the 
great masses, who profligately disregard the princi- 
ples of morality in their political conduct. A certain 
amount of thieves' law there may be — and must 

be, in order to hold society together — but no pure 
16* 



370 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

moral law in the heart of the nation. And a fine 
spectacle of a people is that whose highest moral 
spirit finds its expression in policemen and other 
machineries for keeping rogues from damaging each 
other in a certain number of too severely inconven- 
ient ways ! 

So much in a general way. Let us now con- 
sider certain special objections. 

And first ; it is asked : what is this mingling of 
religion and politics in the pulpit — this concession 
to the clergy of the politico-ethical instruction of 
the people — what is it but the union of Church 
and State, which all history proves to be so perni- 
cious and dangerous ? 

Great is cant ! Wonderful is cant ! whether 
infidel or pious ! 

There is, doubtless, such a thing as the union 
of Church and State. And it is, or may be, a very 
bad thing. In a monarchic, or oligarchic absolut- 
ism, where the State takes the Church into pay, 
gives it powers and controls the exercise of them, 
there Christianity may be corrupted into a tool of 
despotism for the enslaving of the people. So, too, 
in a government where the political power is vested 
in the Church, or controlled by the Church, there 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 371 

will be a theocratic or sacerdotal absolutism — as 
dangerous as any, and possibly more pernicious 
than any other sort of absolutism. In either of 
these cases there is room for talking of the union 
of Church and State. 

But in the name of all that is sensible and to 
the purpose, what room is there for talking about 
Church and State, in a country where the Church 
is neither controlled by the State, nor possesses any 
of the powers of the State, nor any other power, 
except that of preaching — which it enjoys in com- 
mon with the press, with political orators, with 
stump-speakers, lecturers, and all other public talk- 
ers ? Would you take from the clergy the right of 
free speech, and leave it to all other public talkers ? 
Why ? May they not be as safely trusted as the 
other talkers ? What power have they but to talk 
to such as choose to listen ? They can compel no- 
body to listen. They can compel nobody to believe 
what they say, or to act as they say. They may 
convince and persuade such as choose to be con- 
vinced and persuaded. What then ? 

"Why, priestcraft." Cant again — and with- 
out a grain of truth besides. It is not priestcraft ; 
it is nothing but influence — the legitimate influ- 
ence of free public talk. It is speechcraft, if you 



372 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

please ; and by what right would you repress the 
speechcraft of the pulpit any more than that of the 
press, the rostrum, the stump, or any other form 
of free public speech ? Is it an influence to be 
dreaded any more than that of the other forms of 
free speech ? The clergy have no political offices, 
honors or emoluments to gain, as most other public 
talkers have. It is utterly absurd, in a country 
like this, to imagine any combination among them, 
as a caste or order, to gain political power, or to 
wield a corrupt influence, dangerous to the liberties 
and welfare of the people. It is possible error may, 
in some individual instances, be preached — honestly 
or corruptly ; but that is no reason for repressing 
the free speech of the pulpit, any more than that of 
the press, the rostrum, or the stump. But on the 
whole, if there is any class of men in the country, 
likely to be disinterested preachers of salutary po- 
litical truth and righteousness, it is the Christian 
clergy. The fair presumption is that standing in 
the pulpit, with the responsibility of God's minis- 
ters upon them, they will honestly and rightly ap- 
ply and enforce the obligations of patriotism, jus- 
tice and love which Christianity imposes upon men's 
conduct as citizens ; and there is not a decently 
intelligent, honest and honorable infidel on the 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 373 

globe, but will admit that so far as a people can be 
influenced to exercise their rights as citizens, under 
a true religious and Christian sense of those obli- 
gations, it is the best security in the world for the 
safe and happy working of democratic institutions. 

Away then with this cant and nonsense about 
sacerdotal power in a country like this ! 

It is, time, indeed, that the mass of ignorant 
prejudices on the whole subject, in relation to the 
past, as well as to the present, should be exploded 
— that the whole people should learn what the 
learned already know well enough : that after all 
that is said and all that is true about priestly pan- 
dering to tyrannical power, there is another side of 
the story, and it still remains true, that the cause 
of freedom, human rights and true progress, owes 
more to the Christian clergy, all through the ages, 
than to any other single class. 

In the first ages they alone proclaimed the equal 
rights of all — denounced the sin of holding the 
members of Christ's Body in bondage — preached 
manumission as the most sacred duty of charity — 
sold the holy vessels of the churches to redeem the 
bondman from his chains, and incited the rich to 
a like sacrifice of wealth. During the stormy pe- 
riod of the Barbarian invasions, they were the pow- 



374 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

erful and only protectors of the poor against the 
rude conquerors, who came seizing both the soil 
and its tillers as their property. — In the Feudal 
ages, they alone proclaimed the equality and equal 
rights of men, and opened, in the bosom of the 
Church, a career for the talents and abilities of the 
iowliest born. The monasteries were Christian 
democracies, and though subsequently corrupted, 
yet for several centuries, in spite of the faults ne- 
cessarily incident to such institutions, they con- 
ferred immense benefits upon civilization — as places 
of hospitality to the poor, of refuge for the weak 
against the strong, around which flourished a rich 
agriculture, and within which were preserved all 
the light and knowledge that were preserved amidst 
the darkness of those rude and violent times. — At 
a later day the clergy began and carried forward the 
Keformation — translated the Bible for the people — 
combated the Papal power — -and died at the stake 
for the cause of spiritual freedom. And from that 
day to this, throughout all Protestant Christendom, 
the cause of good learning and popular education 
lias owed to them — we will not say more than to 
all other classes together, but undeniably more to 
them than to any other single class. — And in all 
time to come, we may be sure of this : that no de- 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 375 

mocracy will be reasonable, safe or endurable, ex- 
cept a Christian democracy ; and for that there 
must be a free Christian ministry. " Without the 
priesthood/' says one of the most sharp thinking 
and strong speaking writers of the day, " there can 
be no freedom for the people. . . . Statesmen, who 
would keep the people fettered, find it necessary to 
keep the priesthood fettered also/'* In democratic 
governments profligate politicians (and none but 
such) have an interest to fetter the freedom of the 
pulpit ; and as they cannot do it by political or 
legal power (like the statesmen in despotic govern- 
ments) they seek to do it by appealing to vulgar 
passion and prejudice, and stirring up popular 
odium ; and if the tyranny of false opinion is not 
enough^ mobs and tar and feathers, or other less 
mild persuasives, are the not unfrequent resort. 

But to turn to objections which take more the 
form of pious concern for religion, and the just in- 
fluence of its ministers. 

There is one we notice first, because it purports 
to go against the principle on which we rest the 
justification of " political preaching/' so far as we 
have undertaken to justify it. The objection is 

* Alton Locke, p. 362. 



376 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

that the principle goes too far, includes too much ; 
since, on the ground of it, u ministers must concern 
themselves, as ministers, in all the arts and em- 
ployments of life, for there is nothing pertaining to 
humanity that has not more or less of a religious 
bearing."* 

These terms are not an exact expression of the 
principle in question. It is not merely as having 
" more or less of a religious bearing," that we go 
for the right and duty of the preacher to preach 
about certain political matters. Our principle is a 
practical one, and one of degree, relating to ques- 
tions of right and wrong, affecting the character 
and destiny of the nation ; and it is not true that 
"all the arts and employments of life" come 
equally or fairly within its application. But no 
matter. Suppose they do : what then ? No mat- 
ter how far the principle goes — that is no valid 
objection to it, unless it goes to include the allow- 
ance of something confessedly objectionable. If a 
minister cannot rightly instruct his flock m their 
duties without " concerning himself, as a minister, 
in all the arts and employments of life" — why, 
then, in heaven's name, let him " concern himself" 
with them. That is what he is for. If he has a 

* Church Review, Oct., 1856. 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 377 

congregation of swiU-railk vendors, or cat-meat 
sausage makers, and cannot make them compre- 
hend the enormity of their traffic without going 
into a pulpit discussion of the whole science of milk, 
or meat ; let him go into it. So with stock gam- 
bling, and the " tricks of trade/' its immoral max- 
ims and sharp practices — why should the preacher 
hesitate to go into a special exposition of those 
" arts and employments of life/' if it be necessary 
in order to awaken the consciences of thriving and 
"respectable" Christians addicted to them, or to 
warn and caution others ? And in fine, as to all 
the " arts and employments -of life/' however honest 
and honorable, what possible good reason can there 
be why the Christian preacher should not, in due 
proportion, specially " concern himself" with them, 
if thereby he can best strengthen his flock to resist 
the temptations, or to discharge the duties specially 
pertaining to them ? 

The principle we go upon is not then unsound. 
It does not go to justify any thing wrong or unfit. 
It does not, therefore, go too far. 

But, they tell us, the Founder of Christianity 
' has clearly marked the separation between the spir- 
itual and the temporal order, and the peculiar 



378 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

province of His ministers, by His saying : " My 
kingdom is not of this world." 

Kightly understood it is a weighty truth this 
saying declares. But what has it to do with the 
question in hand ? Though not of the world, 
Christ's kingdom is in the world, is set up precisely 
to overthrow the kingdom of Evil in the world, to 
make all the kingdoms of the earth the kingdoms 
of God ; and a grand and solemn struggle between 
the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Evil, is 
the inmost sense of the world's whole history. The 
Founder Himself of this kingdom has bid us pray 
for its coming on the earth. To promote its tri- 
umph here is eminently the function of His minis- 
ters. A nice way of making it come, to surrender 
one-half the world's life to the dominion of politi- 
cians and the devil ! Political sins, wrongs, crimes 
— that is, sins perpetrated in the political sphere — 
are as much spiritual evils, and therefore fall as 
much within the province of the pulpit, as any 
other sins, wrongs and crimes. They belong to the 
kingdom of Evil, which the Christian preacher is 
to combat and subdue. 

"Ah, but the iceapons of his ivarfare are not 
carnal but spiritual ! " 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 379 

The soft ineptitude and irrelevancy of this pious 
platitude would be simply amusing, if it were not 
vexatious to think there are human beings, with 
brains in their heads, so foolish as to utter it, and 
other human beings so foolish as to look upon it as 
a respectable utterance, and so to make an answer 
needful. — Let us try then to answer them, " not 
according to their folly/' though it may be logic 
thrown away. 

Is it, then, inept and irrelevant friends, a 
question about the sort of weapons, or about the 
use of them ? Granted that the Christian preach- 
er's weapons are not the bowie-knife, revolver, 
Sharpens rifle, howitzer, or any other form of " car- 
nal weapons/' but only " the sword of the Spirit, 
which is the Word of God/' — yet is not the ques- 
tion between us precisely this : what is he to strike 
at with that sword ? Is he to strike only at pri- 
vate and not at public sins ? Is he to hit away 
sharply at dancing, card playing, theatre and opera 
going, the Sunday fresh air recreations of poor ar- 
tisans and their children, pent up all the week in 
unwholesome places — and never to aim a single 
stroke at political corruption, fraud, crime, oppres- 
sion, cruelty ? To our poor notion, the preacher 
who, in a crisis of great national wickedness, when 



380 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

judgment and mercy are crushed beneath the iron 
foot of power, does not rush to the rescue with 
strong arm and clear ringing shout for " God and 
the Eight/' must be either too foolish a person to 
be trusted with the sword of the Spirit, or else a 
recreant coward or traitor to his Lord. 

Or do you (perhaps) mean by " spiritual weap- 
ons/' preaching against such sins as Sabbath-break- 
ing and the like, and by " carnal weapons/' preach- 
ing against political sins — that the same sword of 
the Spirit, the same word of God, when directed 
against " worldly amusements/' for instance, is a 
" spiritual weapon," but when directed against po- 
litical rascalities, national crimes, and the wicked- 
ness of the people who choose or sustain the public 
men that perpetrate such things, is a " carnal 
weapon ? " If this be your idea, then, sharp 
and clear-seeing friends, the distinction is too fine 
for us to see it. We can talk no further with you. 

But Christ has bid us u render unto Ccesar the 
things that are Ccesar' s, and unto God the things 
that are God's." 

Yes, and godly bishops of Christ's Church, 
when warning their clergy against " preaching pol- 
itics," quote this text. There is not, perhaps, in 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 381 

the whole Bible,<i text that has been so excessively 
ill-used. Our Lord evaded a direct answer to a 
malicious ensnaring question ; and because the 
question happened to have a political bearing, 
therefore his ministers are never to open their 
mouths to preach on any political subject — exhort, 
rebuke, plead, warn, though humanity lies bleed- 
ing, and justice and mercy are perishing in the 
streets, and every impulse of love to God and love 
to man prompts them to lift up their voice ! A 
precious and noble specimen of logic and of feeling, 
of head and of heart ! 

Nor less remarkable is the perversion of our 
Lord's language. The meaning lying on the face 
of it is as clear as the sun. It embodies the sim- 
plest axiom of universal morals, old as the ages : 
suum cuique ; yet it has been a thousand times 
quoted to prove what it does not come within a 
thousand miles of touching. Because our Lord 
said Caesar is to have his own things and God His 
own things, does that prove that politics and relig- 
ion are to be kept entirely separate — that politics 
belong exclusively to Caesar,- and neither God nor 
His ministers have a right to say a word about 
them ? That is a long logical leap ! We need 
not wonder that those who take it can jump fur- 



382 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

ther still, and make the saying mean that Cesar's 
things are Caesar's, and God's things are Caesar's 
too, if Caesar choose to put his stamp upon them — 
at least, that God's ministers, in such a case,, must 
not say they are not. 

But to us it seems that there is a great deal in 
politics which belongs to God, and if not rendered 
to Him will be rendered to something worse than 
Caesar. Political righteousness — justice, mercy and 
truth in the administration of public affairs, are 
God's things. In a country like this, it is one of 
the things above all others to be rendered to God, 
that the people (who have the power) should put 
into and sustain in office only such men as will rule 
righteously. And it is the sacred duty of the 
Christian preacher to warn the people perpetually 
that if they do otherwise, disaster and evil will 
come upon them sooner or later — through the inev- 
itable operation of the laws that govern human 
history, and under which historical causes work out 
the destiny of nations. 

But St. Paul said he " determined to Jcnoio 
nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified" and 
he is the model for the Christian minister. 

To be sure St. Paul did say so : look at the 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 383 

place, and you will see he was set against recog- 
nizing any of those sectarian divisions that had 
sprung up among the Christians to whom he was 
writing. This is what he meant. If he had in- 
tended to say, in literal strictness, that he preached 
about nothing but the crucifixion of Christ, even 
in the largest view of that subject taken by the 
objectors, he would have told an untruth. For he 
did preach about a hundred other things — special 
points of morals, order and decorum, the dress and 
behavior of men and women, financial and econom- 
ical regulations, not forgetting also points of civil 
and political obligation. And in fine, if he had 
conducted according to the notion of those who 
quote him, he would have preached Christ without 
a Christianity. So much for St. Paul's testimony 
against political preaching. 

But it is urged that the doctrine we lay down, 
by giving allowance to preaching on questions that 
may be in issue between political parties, goes to 
convert the pulpit into a political arena, and the 
clergy into political partisans. 

We deny this. Our doctrine forbids the minis- 
ter of religion to bring into the pulpit any political 
questions, except such as involve the sacred obliga- 



384 POLITICS AM) Tin; PULPIT. 

lions of Christian duly; and it requires him to 
treat all such questions not as a politician, but as 
God's minister — setting forth God's undeniable 
truth on the matter, regardless whether it leU for 
or against this party or that party. If he does any 
thing else than this, lie does something out of our 
rubric ; we are not responsible (or him. If he docs 
only what our doctrine allows and enjoins, and does 
it in a right honest, earnest, religious, and fcrtie 
Christian way — as he may do and should do — lie just 
docs what is tight, fitting, and his duty to do ; and 
it is a falsehood and an abuse of language to call 1 il in 
apolitical partisan, merely because the matter he 

speaks of may be in issue between conflicting par- 
ties. He may be called so, by those who know bel- 
ter, because the truth is distasteful or inconvenient. 
That is no reason for not doing his duty. He may 

perhaps be honestly mistaken for one, because he 
may, in tin; discharge of his duty, be obliged to 

take sides, or to seem to take sides, between the 

conflicting parties. That Is something that cannot 

be helped. Time maycorreot <he misconception; 
most likely it will, in (he Long run, give him a 

chance to prove his impartial fidelity lo God's truth, 

as against all parties. But if otherwise, it is not 

his fault, but the fault of the fads of the 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 385 

All he has to see to is to take the right side, to go 
for what is right and against what is wrong in the 
sight of the Most High. 

But it may be said, the preacher is liable to 
mistake the right side — blessing what God hath not, 
blessed, and cursing tohat God hath not cursed. 

This is possible. But there is an end of all 
preaching of every sort, if you insist on having 
none but infallible preachers. 

But the question of moral right and duty, it is 
suggested, may be far from clear : honest men may 
differ in opinion about it. 

That is possible too. But would you have no 
preaching on any subject until all doubt is removed, 
and all honest men see alike ? Bather, on the 
contrary, the more reason for discussing any great 
question of right and wrong, if it be one about which 
honest men really differ. In all other matters this 
is held to be the best way to clear up doubt, and 
bring honest men to be of one mind. 

But we arc bid consider what a conflict of ora- 
cles we inaugurate — pulpit against pulpit — preacher 
against preacher, one banning, another blessing. 

and both in the name of the Lord. 
17 



386 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

Well, that is possible ; but it is a liability that 
must be accepted as incident to all progress of 
truth. The minister of religion has nothing for it 
but to stand up for the cause of righteousness, as 
he in his best conscience understands it. Better 
earnest controversy otit of love for the right cause, 
than dead silence when the interests of eternal jus- 
tice are at state. 

But we are told the clergy themselves will be in 
constant danger of falling under the influence of 
party spirit and preaching as mere political parti- 
sans. 

Granted the possibility again : but they are not 
to turn aside from the path of duty because of 
temptations in it. They must resist the tempta- 
tion. That is all. There is grace enough for every 
body to overcome temptation in the path of duty. 

But this sort of preaching, it is rejoined, tends 
to foment party animosity and strife among the 
people, to excite ill-ivill to the minister, to impair 
his influence, and imperil his position. 

To this we have only to reply, that if the min- 
ister of religion preaches only God's truth and in 
the right way (and if he does not, he is not the 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 387 

man we are defending), such results, if they occur, 
are not any legitimate tendency of his preaching ; 
and he is not responsible for any tendency in men 
— whether bad men or good men — to pervert what 
is good. The worst evils come from abuse of the 
best things. Christ himself said the Gospel of 
Peace would be a sword and a strife. At the same 
time, it is true to say that the legitimate tendency 
of the preaching we uphold is to allay party spirit, 
to lead men to act in politics, as in other things, 
from a conscientious regard to duty and right ; and 
it is no more than a proper homage to truth and to 
God's ordination of things, to hope and to believe 
that it will, in the long run and in th« large view, 
have its proper influence, rather than become the 
occasion of evil through perversion. But whether 
so or not, we are quite sure it makes no difference 
as to the Christian preacher's duty. He is God's 
minister, the prophet of God's truth ; and not the 
mere stipendiary agent of the people, employed to 
conduct the ceremonial of public worship, with al- 
lowance to say in the pulpit only such things as 
suit the public taste. Those good people who are 
so bitter against what they call " preaching poli- 
tics," may well be reminded of a text some of them 
are very fond of quoting in reference to the faithful 



388 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

preaching of doctrines, not agreeable to " the car- 
nal heart/' (as they phrase it,) namely, that the 
minister must " not shun to declare the whole 
counsel of God, whether men will hear, or whether 
they will forbear." Whether this text applies to 
the great quinquaticular u doctrines of grace " or 
not, we are very clear it rightfully applies to the 
duty of enforcing the principles of Christian morals, 
and testifying against public wickedness and crime ; 
and if the Gospel preacher does this in a right 
earnest, loving, true Christian way, he need not 
disturb himself about the consequences, least of all, 
consequences personal to himself — ill-will, loss of 
place, or whatever else. It is God's affair to take 
order about those things. 

But why not let the minister limit himself to in- 
culcating the principles and precepts of Christianity 
in a general tvay, without going into particular ap- 
plications of them to the public questions of the 
day, about which men and parties are divided ? 

To which question we reply by another : why 
should he do this ? 

It is a crisis, we will say — a question of the tri- 
umph of right or wrong, of public righteousness, or 
public crime, of individual virtue or guilt, and of 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 389 

national glory and welfare or disgrace and retribu- 
tion. That is the hypothesis. We have a right 
to make it. Let this be noted. It is the ground 
we take stand upon. 

Now in such a crisis, why should the Christian 
preacher limit himself to such generalities of Chris- 
tian inculcation ? Is there any good reason for it ? 
For, otherwise, one would say every thing right- 
headed and right -hearted in him, every respectable 
impulse of human nature, would bid him lift up 
his voice with most unmistakable specialty of ap- 
plication, and pour the red-hot God's word point- 
blank at the thing he meant to hit. 

Why, then, should he content himself with 
firing off great vollies of soft generalities, aimed 
nowhere in particular ? 

Is it to avoid the risk of occasioning increased 
dissension, or of incurring odium and loss of influ- 
ence, and the like ? This is mostly what is urged. 

We have already disposed of this. But we 
have now further to say that such a proceeding is 
as foolish as it is unworthy of God's prophet. The 
people will either see and feel the special applica- 
tion and force of the general inculcation, or they 
will not. If they do, nothing or next to nothing 
of the advantage looked for will be gained ; the ex- 



390 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

citement and offence is likely to be quite as great. 
If they do not, the preaching does no good, cer- 
tainly not the intended good ; and can a more mean 
and contemptible spectacle be presented to the im- 
agination than God's prophet, in such a crisis, 
preaching generalities so general that the people 
cannot see and feel their point and force — cannot 
see what he is driving at. But whatever may be 
thought of him, his trumpet must either blow a 
blast of generalities too soft to arouse the slumber- 
ers to any definite comprehension of his purpose, 
and so be without effect, or else will be quite as 
likely to cause angry disturbance in the camp, as 
the most clear and piercing notes of alarm. 

But why then meddle at all with such subjects ? 
Why not let them altogether alone ? He ivill thus 
avoid odium j preserve his official influence with men 
of all parties, and thus be better able to save their 
soids — which is his great business and proper work. 

This is very specious. It has a soft unction of 
piety about it. But soft-hearted friends, who 
talk thus, let us understand one another about this 
" saving of souls/' For we, for our part, think 
there is scarcely any thing about which so much, 
and such pernicious cant and falsehood has been 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 391 

said and sung, as about this same matter of saving 
the soul. 

What, then, do you mean by saving the soul ? 
Is it merely to escape a certain hot intolerable 
place when one dies, and to get into comfortable 
quarters in the other world ? This, we fear, is 
pretty nearly all that a great many understand by 
saving the soul. 

We will not stop now to suggest what a mean 
conception of the chief end of a rational creature 
this is ; nor further, that he who makes the saving 
of his soul his supreme end, will be sure to lose it ; 
nor, in fine, that, in a right just view, the soul is 
well saved only so far as it thinks more of doing its 
duty than of any thing it is to get in the way of 
payment, either in this world or in the world to 
come — all which things are perhaps dark to you, 
friends, who would have the minister let political 
topics alone, and stick to preaching the Gospel and 
saving souls. 

But this much we must insist upon : that the 
soul needs saving in this world, in order to get well- 
saved in the world to come, and that this needful 
salvation consists in something more than orthodox 
notions or devotional fervors — in truth, honesty and 
fair dealing, for instance. " Clear views of the 



392 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

vital truths of the Gospel/' and " sweet commun- 
ion with God " — as some phrase it — are not all that 
is needful. Think of it : what sort of a saved soul 
is he who has " clear views of vital truth/' and 
believes that "all is fair in horse trade " — holds 
" sweet communion with his Maker/' and delights 
to come over a " knowing one/' or to take a " green- 
horn" in ; — is regular at family prayers, and cheats 
in weights and measures in his trade ; — carries 
round the plate at church, and swears falsely at the 
Custom House ? 

But consider, friends, is he a better saved 
soul, however orthodox in the faith and devout in 
prayers, who believes that " all is fair in politics " 
— cheats at elections, stuffs ballot-boxes, and swears 
to false returns, or connives at such things, by sup- 
porting the men that do them ? Such a soul, it 
seems to our poor judgment, cannot in any way be 
well-saved, either for this world or the next, until 
it leaves off such practices. Will subscribing to 
the Tract Society atone for subscribing to a corrup- 
tion fund ? Will sending the Gospel to the heathen 
be taken as an offset to sending armed ruffians to 
take possession of the polls, and keep honest voters 
from their right ? 

It seems to us the Gospel preacher should speak 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 393 

plainly to his people about such things. They may 
be angry with him. So a congregation of swill- 
milk dealers, or cat-meat sausage makers, would 
most likely be angry at hearing their traffic de- 
nounced ; but should the Christian preacher on 
that account keep a hushed silence about their 
callings, and work away at saving their souls ? 
Why, he knows that God Himself cannot possibly 
save them unless they quit the swill-milk traffic 
or the cat-meat sausage line. Is it not altogether 
best for him plainly to tell them so ? 

In like sort it seems to us utterly absurd for the 
Christian preacher to keep silence about political 
sins, in order the better to save the souls of politi- 
cal sinners. And wrong, too : it ministers to a 
terrible delusion. He is bound to warn them that 
unless they leave off practising, or supporting the 
practice of political wickedness, neither God, nor 
any thing else in the universe, can possibly save their 
souls. 

Besides, saved souls are needed in this world — 
rightly saved souls, who make the precepts of the 
Gospel the rule of their conduct in all the relations 
of life — political as well as social — who love their 
duty so well that they do not stop to think of pay- 
ment in another world, in order to find a motive for 
17* 



394 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

doing it in this. God has many present uses for 
such souls besides going to church and sacrament, 
praying in their families and in their closets, sub- 
scribing to the Tract Society, and the like ; among 
which uses we reckon eminently the standing up 
for truth and righteousness against fraud and cor- 
ruption, for justice and mercy against oppression 
and wrong in public conduct. And so, even sup- 
posing a man, who is recreant to Christian princi- 
ples, may be a good enough Christian to escape un- 
comfortable quarters in another world, he will still 
be a very poor sort of Christian for some of the 
most important uses God has for Christians in this 
world. 

In fine, therefore, we do not see but the Chris- 
tian preacher, in order to " save souls " to any good 
purpose, either for this world or for the next must 
in due season and proportion, concern himself more 
or less directly with political matters, cannot let 
them altogether alone. 

But, it is still insisted, that if the minister 
preaches the Gospel, wins souls to Christ, makes 
men good Christians, there is no need of political 
preaching ; get the heart right and you have the 
sure cure for all political and social evils. 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 395 

These are very respectable platitudes of phrase ; 
there would not be a word to say against them, if 
they were not used to beg the question. They im- 
ply the assumption that in a free country, where 
the people have political powers, rights, duties — 
where there are political temptations, sins, evils — 
you can preach the Gospel, can win souls to Christ, 
can make men good Christians, without meddling 
in any special way with political subjects. Which 
is precisely what we deny. Besides, where does 
the principle go ? It precludes all other special 
preaching — makes it needless, if not improper, to 
preach particularly about any of the special temp- 
tations, sins, wrong practices, and evil customs of 
society ; and would make great placards of Chris- 
tian generalities pasted on the walls of churches, 
or in other public places, answer all the ends of the 
Christian pulpit — at a great saving of expense ! 

But not to urge this — remember that to get the 
heart right, you must get at it. How are you 
going to get at it, if it is environed and entrenched 
in habits and customs, maxims and practices which « 
it does not see or feel to be wrong ? Even to reach 
the citadel, there are sometimes outworks which 
must first be carried. 

But whether so or not, there is a great deal of 



396 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

political preaching, or of the proper substance of 
it, that must in some way be got into men's hearts 
in this country, before their hearts can be got en- 
tirely right, before you can make thoroughly good 
Christians of them. " Converting the heart/' in 
the sense our obscurantist friends use the phrase, is 
not always of itself enough to make men good cit- 
izens. Our " converted " brethren are not, in point 
of fact, remarkably better models of political holi- 
ness, than other men. Our churches are full of 
"converted" men, who seem utterly unconscious 
of the wickedness of political fraud and corruption, 
unconscious of the sin of upholding it, and of the 
enormities of public crime, of which they are the 
actual upholders. Such men need a great deal 
more conversion before they can become really good 
citizens, or thoroughly good Christians. 

Men may be very good Christians in the main, 
and yet very bad Christians in particular points. 
Good old John Newton, at one time of his life, on 
the coast of Africa, used to devote eight hours a 
•day to sleep and meals, eight to reading the Bible 
and praying, and eight to fettering and stowing 
away poor negroes, captured in bloody wars excited 
by barrels of rum, paid by him to barbarous chiefs, 
— and never then, nor for some time after, felt any 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 397 

contradiction between his prayers and his trade ! 
To some men Christianity is like a dark lantern ; 
it does not illuminate at once the whole sphere of 
their conscience : you must sometimes turn its 
flashing light right upon the object you would 
make them see. 

Besides : if ever so much " won to Christ/' 
ever so well " converted/' men need to be kept 
from falling away — to be watched and strengthened 
by perpetual reiteration of instruction and warn- 
ing, as special as the ever-recurring temptations to 
which they are exposed ; wherein lies one great 
function of the Christian preacher. 

And so we conclude the Grospel cannot, in this 
country at least, be rightly preached, souls truly 
won to Christ, and men made really good Chris- 
tians, so as to accomplish the objects proposed by 
our objectors, namely, to make men good citizens, 
and so to put an end to political sins and evils — 
without a certain amount of duly-timed and judi- 
cious, in one word, good " political preaching." 
We beg it may be sharply noted that we go only 
for that which is good ; for however earnestly we 
defend the principle of political preaching, as a 
matter of right and of duty, yet we are as little in 
favor of foolish political as of any other foolish 
preaching. 



398 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

But enough for objections. There is not one 
but is worthless or insufficient. 

We conclude by directing again a single mo- 
ment's more particular attention to the doctrine 
that would exclude from the pulpit all questions 
that may be in issue between conflicting parties ; 
for it is with reference to this point that the objec- 
tions to political preaching have the greatest show 
of reason and force. 

Consider then the consequences of the doctrine. 
Where does it go ? It goes in principle to shut 
the mouths of the clergy on any, and so by conse- 
quence on every question of Christian morals, no 
matter how great or sacred. No matter what 
wicked ends are sought, nor by what wicked means, 
God's ministers must not say a word, if profligate 
politicians have made party questions of them. 
The African Slave Trade and Polygamy are as 
yet crimes in law as well as in morals, and no po- 
litical party has taken them under patronage ; it is 
admitted that they may therefore be now denounced 
in the pulpit. But let the legalization of these 
practices be attempted by any party, (and it would 
not be strange if the former measure should at no 
distant day be forced into issue,) and the voice of 
the pulpit must be hushed. We should then have 



POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 399 

Bishops charging their clergy to render to Caesar 
the things that are Caesar's, and to let political 
subjects alone ! 

But the mere theoretical reach of the principle 
apart, what is the necessary influence, on the popu- 
lar mind, of putting into vogue this notion that 
nothing must be said in the pulpit that touches on 
the conduct of political parties ? It goes to im- 
bue the great mass of the people with a feeling 
that politics is entitled to a certain immunity and 
exemption from moral criticism and moral respon- 
sibility — that crime ceases to be criminal, atrocities 
are no longer atrocious, if perpetrated in the inter- 
est of political parties. In short, the putting this 
notion into vogue is just one of the cunningest of 
all possible contrivances, to sell out and surrender 
the conscience of the nation to politicians and to 
the Devil. It has done more than almost any 
thing else to weaken and pervert the moral sense 
of the nation. The deteriorating process has been 
going on with prodigious rapidity within the last 
few years. One is astonished to look back over re- 
cent political conflicts, and observe the callous in- 
sensibility to moral considerations, the utter indif- 
ference to corruption, fraud, wrong, cruelty, and 
crime displayed by millions of the people — mil- 



400 POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. 

lions who think themselves, and are looked upon by- 
others, as highly respectable, moral, and religious. 
This demoralization is likely to go on with increas- 
ing rapidity, unless some stronger influences can 
be brought to check its progress. 

This is the reason we have taken the subject 
up. It is infinitely important to the salvation of 
the nation that the pulpit should be free, that its 
voice should be heard — one great strong voice — 
against all public wickedness. If the clergy would 
unitedly speak out, continually enforcing upon the 
great mass of the people the tremendous responsi- 
bility that rests upon them, more than upon any 
other people on the globe, for the character of the 
government and the destiny of the nation, they 
might have an immense influence for good. If they 
do not thus speak out, we are not sure but they 
will have to give way to something better, or to 
something worse. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX 



VIOLENCE AND ABUSE OF SUFFKAGE. 

Lest the statements made in several places in the fore- 
going volume — and particularly on pages 225 — 229 — re- 
specting the corrupt working and demoralizing influence 
of our political system, should be thought overcharged, 
and my expressions too unmeasured, I subjoin some ex- 
tracts from the New York Times. They are merely spe- 
cimens. I could fill a volume with undeniable facts of a 
similar kind, occurring in other parts of the country, es- 
pecially in New York and other great cities. 

As the information may be needful for readers in other 
countries, I may mention that the distinctive object of the 
so-called " American " party, is the exclusion of all except 
native-born Americans from the exercise of suffrage, and 
from the holding of public office. Also : that none but 
11 naturalized " foreigners have the legal right of voting. 



404 APPENDIX. 

This is the party in whose interest foreigners — and some 
of them unnaturalized — were captured, and caged, and 
beaten, and drugged, and driven to the polls by armed 
brutes and ruffians, as may be seen below ! A spectacle 
not only of unblushing disregard of all moral principles, 
but also of their own fundamental and proclaimed politi- 
cal principles ! 

A Baltimore correspondent of the New York Times, 
Jan. 18, 1860, says: 

A book, embracing nearly four hundred pages, in the 
form of testimony legally rendered and elicited, narrating 
incidents of fraud, violence, etc., at our recent State election 
in Baltimore, has just been published. It is designed to be 
offered to the State General Assembly as evidence, by Re- 
formers contesting their seats in that body, and will tell 
strongly against Hon. Henry Winter Davis and Hon. J. 
Morrison Harris, when called upon to defend the right to 
their seats in Congress. This is, perhaps, one of the rich- 
est productions of the present century. Never was more 
rascality and political knavery compressed within the same 
number of pages. It shows the election to have been a 
monstrous fraud, effected through instrumentalities which 
should cast a blush upon the cheek of Satan himself. I 
have never read its like before, and never expect to again. 
A full insight is given into the mystery of " cooping." 
Tiiese details are in minuiice, and though blistering with 
shame, are so novel, so foul, so ridiculous withal, so funny, 
so graphic, that they would make a saint, however digni- 
fied and solemnized, burst into irresistible laughter. Mun- 



APPENDIX. 405 

chausen sinks into insignificance compared with it. Cir- 
cumstances are told and sworn to which would make the 
quills start from the fretful porcupine. After perusing 
this document, it is easy to account for the sway rowdy- 
ism has had in our metropolis. 

From the volume above referred to, I give an extract 
or two, as taken from the Times : 

ELECTION FRAUDS REDUCED TO A SYSTEM VOTERS IN DURESS. 

The testimony taken in the investigation of the recent 
election frauds in Baltimore was laid before the Legisla- 
ture a few days since. It bears directly upon the case of 
the contested seats of members of the Legislature from 
Baltimore City, and develops a systematic plan of rascal- 
ity. We copy from the Baltimore American : 

TESTIMONY OP PETER EITZPATRICK. 

This witness is an unnaturalized Irishman, who had 
lived 18 months in the city. 

Question. — Did you vote at the election on November 
2, 1859, and if so, in what ward? 

Answer. — I was compelled to vote the American 
ticket in the Tenth ward. 

Question. — How many nights previous to the election 
did you spend in the Tenth ward ? 

Answer. — I was cooped there four nights and three 
days. 

Question. — Where and by whom were you cooped ? 

Answer. — It was between Baltimore and Fayette 
streets, on Holiday street, to the best of my knowledge, 
by this here party of " Ras Levy's " and " John English's " 



406 APPENDIX. 

crowd ; I don't know many of them, but I know a few of 
them. 

Question. — State the circumstances of your being 
cooped and having voted ? 

Answer. — They took me on Saturday night before the 
election, dealt me two blows with a billy on the head and 
two on the knees, to make me drink liquor; and after 
they compelled me to drink, they made me take oath on 
the Holy Evangelists I wouldn't tell any thing I saw 
down there after they let me out ; then they put me down 
in a big cellar, and put me through a hole in the wall 
into the next dwelling, which was unoccupied on the 
second story ; when I got in there, there were about fif- 
teen in there before me, and from fifteen, up to Wednes- 
day, the number increased, until, to the best of my knowl- 
edge, they had about eighty or ninety : and, on Wednes- 
day morning, they took us out six at a time, to vote the 
American ticket; I told them I wasn't entitled to a vote, 
and they said if I wouldn't vote I should die ; there was 
a good many others that they served in the same way ; 
knocked them down with billies and slung shots, and took 
their money and their watches ; I am a good Reformer, 
and if I had not had a wife and two children, i" would 
rather have died than have voted their American ticket / 
as soon as the polls were opened, they were looking out 
of the windows, and they fired on the Reformers, and af- 
ter the firing was over, they came up and took us out six 
at a time to vote ; after I had voted, and I was one of the 
first six that came out, one of them tuld me to go home — 
which I did ; in the afternoon I was taken sick and had 
to go to bed, and stayed there until next day ; I was wea- 
ried, and the kind of stuff they gave us to eat and drink 



APFENDIX. 407 

would have sickened a horse ; they brought up liquor by 
the bucket full, and only gave us half enough to eat. 

A VICTIM OF THE " ROUGHSKINS." 

The evidence of J. Justus Ritzmin shows that this 
witness was also " cooped " and compelled to vote. He 
testifies : 

On Monday morning, about eight or nine o'clock, I 
was near the sugar-house, where I was at work, and had 
no work there to do ; I therefore went to the State to- 
bacco warehouse, and inquired of a German at work there 
whether I could get any work ; he pointed to a young 
man in the warehouse, and told me to apply to him ; con- 
sequently I went to him, and he engaged me to work there 
at $6 a week for the whole year ; I went to work, and at 
about eleven o'clock he told me that work would be 
stopped at four o'clock, and that we would go to another 
warehouse on the Point ; after a while he told me to come 
along with him, and that I might either put on my coat 
or leave it in the office ; three others and myself got into 
a boat, went over the dock, and then crossed over Union 
dock, and so went to the corner of Wilk and Caroline 
streets ; he stood there with us awhile, took me by the 
arm, and then led me and the two others into a house there 
to a bar, where we were treated ; while I was drinking, 
another man present in the house said to me, " As soon 
as the work here is done you can go back to the other 
warehouse ; " after a while our conductor came and led us 
through the back of the house into a court-yard, and then, 
apparently through one or two yards, until we came in 
front of a crowd of men, about five or six, armed with 
clubs, and guns, and other weapons, standing at a sort of 



408 APPENDIX. 

entrance through the fence or partition between two 
houses ; immediately I was pushed from behind, and 
caught by the arm by one of the crowd, and dragged 
through the opening ; at the same time another German, 
not one who had accompanied us, was pushed through im- 
mediately behind me ; the conductor and the two others 
I saw no more ; after we had been got through the open- 
ing into the next house, as I have stated, another man 
came and led us into a little dark room, where we were 
kept a few minutes ; while we were there, the man with 
me began to make a noise, trying to break the planks out, 
etc. ; immediately thereupon the door opened, and three 
or four men appeared, one of whom struck the poor fel- 
low on the head with a club, which felled him to the 
ground ; a second one raised an axe and struck at him 
through the doorway ; seeing the intention of the man, I 
pushed the door to, so as to intercept the blow, which 
fell upon the door, beat it back against my mouth, and 
hurt my lips severely ; the party then came in and searched 
us thoroughly, taking every thing of any value from us ; 
I had only a small pocket-knife, which they took ; my 
companion they made strip, and as he drew off his shoe 
his money fell out, a few quarters and some small money ; 
we were left locked in for a while ; then the captain of 
the coop came, opened the door, and led us down stairs 
to a small trap-door, which led to the cellar ; we were 
put down there, and as we were going down, I in front, 
my companion was pushed down violently, and falling 
against me, we both tumbled down into the cellar ; here 
we found ourselves in a dark hole, full of all sorts of 
men, with one solitary candle to give us light ; there I 
was kept until Tuesday afternoon, when the captain 
came down and selected the oldest of us ; I was called by 



APPENDIX. 409 

name, and led up stairs to the second story, and put into 
a large room, which was also full of persons who were 
similarly cooped ; there I was kept until Wednesday morn- 
ing, the day of the last election ; on Wednesday morning, 
after nine o'clock, we were brought out by threes and 
fours, and had tickets put into our hands ; I examined the 
tickets which were given me, and know they were u Amer- 
ican n tickets ; I recognized them by the names of the 
candidates, the black stripe down their length, the head 
of Washington at the top, and the extreme narrowness of 
the ticket; three others and myself were brought out, and 
led by the rowdies holding us by the arm, up to the win- 
dow of the Second Ward polls, and voted ; we four then 
were put into a carriage, and driven around through the 
town, through streets which I did not know, to various 
polls, and we were voted five or six times ; we were then 
driven to the Holiday street polls, voted again, and then 
shut up in the coop there next to the polls, in the cellar ; 
we were then brought up into a room, and ordered by the 
captain of the coop to change clothes with some seven or 
eight other cooped individuals, which most of us did, but 
I retained my own clothes ■; the captain changed clothes 
with a G-erman,. taking a nice hat and black overcoat, in 
exchange for his cap and coat, which were of little value ; 
we were then voted again at these polls, and then we 
were led on foot to Baltimore street, where an omnibus 
awaited us, and we were packed in till it was full, and 
driven down to the coop-house at the Second ward again * 
arrived there ive voted again at the Second ward, and 
then we were driven around in the omnibus to various 
polls and voted some six times, until we came to a poll 
the other side of Ensor street, where there was a great 
crowd, hustling and pushing, screaming, etc., in spite of 
18 



410 APPENDIX. 

which we were led up by the arm, by the rowdies, through 
the crowd and compelled to vote ; I was let go for a mo- 
ment, while the rowdies who had held me joined in the 
hustling and pushing, and seeing the chance I dodged 
into the crowd and escaped to my home ; / voted at least, 
in the various tuards, sixteen times, compelled each time 
to give a different name f none of the judges said any 
thing to me, or any of us, that I heard, except one judge 
at the polls near Ensor street, who asked me how long I 
had lived in the city ; I told him two years ; the rowdies 
behind me said to him, " All right ! all right ! n and the 
judge took the ticket without further question ; the treat- 
ment of some of those in the coop was disgusting and hor- 
rible in the extreme ; men were beaten, kicked and 
stamped in the face with heavy boots ; in the cellar of the 
Second ward there were about seventy or eighty persons 
locked up, not allowed to be absent for a moment to sat- 
isfy the wants of nature, and in the upper room of which 
I have spoken, as many more ; the three men who were 
with me voted, each of them, as often as I did. 

Question. — Give the names of any of the parties on 
the tickets which you voted ? 

Answer. — I read Harris on some of them, and Davis 
on some of them, and the name of Colson ; I do not re- 
member precisely; and Whitney's name was also on them. 

Patrick Finnigan testified as follows : 

Question. — "Where were you taken by the parties who 
cooped you ? 

Answer. — I could not say exactly, but it was in the 
neighborhood of Gay street. 

Question. — What did they then do with you? 

Answer. — They took me down along Gay street to 



ArPENDIX. 411 

the double pump near Odd Fellows' Hall, and there I 
called out " Watch; " a policeman came, and then they 
let me go ; I went round to the watch-house and told 
Captain Brashears all about it, and that the parties had 
pretended to arrest me for a murderer ; he told me to 
come down the next morning and see if I could recognize 
them and make a charge against them ; I then left the 
watch-house ; when I got outside I met two men, one of 
whom I knew, and they insisted on my going along with 
them, and took me down to Holliday street, between Fay- 
ette and Baltimore streets, put me in a room in " Ras 
Levy's " house, and kept me there until the morning of 
election ; in two rooms there were about sixty or seventy 
other persons cooped ; they beat me severely ivith billies 
and espantoons, and I had the marks on my body for 
some two weeks ; on the morning of election, they took 
me out, right after the firing, and made me vote ; the man 
who held me did not want to let me go, but a gentleman 
came over, and insisted on my being let go, and so I was 

Question. — While you were in the coop, did you see 
John Hinesly there ? 

Answer. — I did ; I saw him there on Saturday night, 
when I was taken in ; I then called to him by name, but 
he wouldn't say any thing to me, and then they beat me ; 
he went out for a little while, and came back afterwards ; 
I saw him in the coop afterwards ; I think it was Tues- 
day, or it may have been on Monday ; there were others 
cooped besides myself in the room when Hinesly was in 
there. 

The New York Times of Jan. 19, 1860, has the fol- 
lowing remarks upon the facts of which the foregoing are 
a sample : 



412 APPENDIX. 

THE BEAUTIES OF BALTIMORE VOTING. 

The authorities of Baltimore are now edifying their 
fellow-citizens and the world with an inquiry into the cir- 
cumstances which attended the late election in that city. 
The results already attained afford a curious commentary 
upon the indignation to which certain of the Baltimore 
partisan journals gave way on finding that the independ- 
ent Press of the country had ventured to question the 
propriety, decorum, and civilization, displayed by the Plug- 
Uglies, Awl Clubs and other agreeable associations of 
Baltimorean sovereigns, upon that occasion. The editor 
of the Baltimore Exchange, as our readers will remember, 
was forced to defend himself from the assaults of some of 
these offended depositaries of political power, by a recourse 
to the " last argument of Kings," simply and solely because 
he had shown manliness in admitting, and good citizen- 
ship in denouncing, the outrages perpetrated at the polls 
upon unarmed voters. The New York Times was in a 
like spirit set upon by some of its contemporaries for 
calling attention to the shame and peril of such occur- 
rences in a great American city. It now appears that 
the system of intimidation by personal violence has be- 
come thoroughly organized in the Monumental City ; and 
that the excesses of Baltimore elections are not to be 
treated as mere sporadic cases of popular ebullition. The 
Jacobin Clubs of France were not more thoroughly 
drilled in the art and mystery of harmonizing public opin- 
ion than are the so-called " Americans," of Baltimore. 
Several days before the late election, these indefatigable 
men were in the field. They scoured the city, as eagerly 
bent upon finding " foreigners," as any Dublin oysterman 
upon dredging for " natives." Irishmen, Germans, all 



APPENDIX. 413 

who fell in their way, were harpooned, carried off to sub- 
terranean cells, locked up, compelled from tune to time to 
drink great quantities of whiskey — reduced, in short, to a 
state of complete submission. When the day of election 
came, these captives were paraded openly in the streets, 
in custody of a guard with cocked revolvers, marched 
from poll to poll, forced to vote five or six times over, re- 
turned to their dungeons, beaten again, and finally released 
when the great issue had been decided, and the " unbought 
voice of freemen " had selected the officers by whom the 
laws of an American community were to be administered 
and its rights defended. All this took place in a wealthy 
city, in open day, under the eyes of an organized City 
Government, and in defiance of every functionary known 
to the law. 

Is it not time for thinking men to ask themselves 
whether such things as these are the legitimate results of 
popular institutions ? We talk about the subjects of 
Austrian despotism with a large commiseration ; but the 
peasant of the Tyrol or Steyermark is at least spared the 
degradation of being whipped into outraging the institu- 
tions under which he lives. If an irresponsible empire 
of sheer physical force is to be established in an Ameri- 
can city, it is, at least, worth thinking of whether it would 
not be better for all parties concerned that such an empire 
should be confided to the most enlightened, instead of the 
most brutal classes of the population. A man who is 
driven through the streets by an arbitrary master, is 
plainly a slave ; but a slave who moves at the point of le- 
gitimate bayonets is surely more respectable, in his own 
eyes, than a slave who is goaded onward by the sharpened 
awls of a knot of vulgar desperadoes. 

The only parallels which can be found in recent times 



414 APPENDIX. 

for such proceedings as these in Baltimore, must be looked 
for in some of^he recent Parliamentary elections of Eng- 
land and Ireland. There, too, voters were seized in 
squads, drugged with beer, and driven in carriages, dumb 
and unresisting, to vote for whomsoever it pleased their 
captors to nominate. There, too, as in the case of Admi- 
ral Walters, at Cheltenham, voters suspected of inde- 
pendence were mobbed away from the polls, and the suf- 
frages of freemen secured with the club and the horse- 
whip. But there is this special feature in the Baltimorean 
outrages, that they were committed on a great scale, 
openly, avowedly, with the air of a chronic institution. 
Nor is this all. 

The inquiry which has brought these facts to light is, 
we believe, an inquiry simply into the legality of the elec- 
tion. It is not, so far as we know, proposed to base upon 
it any measures for the punishment or repression of these 
horrible disorders, unless a Metropolitan Police bill, in 
imitation of our own, may be so considered. But we think 
there can be no question in the mind of any man as to the 
necessity for some such action on the part of the Legislature 
as shall either deprive voting in Baltimore of its present 
sanguinary incidents — make it, in short, less terrible than 
actual service in the field against an invading army, or 
else relieve the poor, helpless, unoffending inhabitants 
from the duty of voting at all. It appears from the evi- 
dence before us, that a waiver of one's constitutional 
rights last fall did not furnish a peaceable Baltimorean 
with the least immunity from the horrors and dangers of 
election day. In vain he stayed at home and left politics 
to the rowdies and blackguards. The rowdies and black- 
guards would not permit him to abdicate, and knocked 
and cuffed, and stabbed and 3hot him into the repeated ex- 



APPENDIX. 415 

ercise of his privileges as a citizen. To those who went 
through this ordeal, the condition of a free negro, upon 
one day in the year at least, must seem positively envia- 
ble. What a caricature upon " the nature and tendency " 
of free institutions, might be composed in a sketch of dis- 
franchised, despised Sambo, grinning in his morning lounge, 
at the spectacle of Anglo-Saxon sovereigns, dragged, bat- 
tered, bruised, bleeding, in the custody of a gang of armed 
criminals to deposit their votes 

— "Like snow-flakes on the silent sod," 

and thus perform one of those functions which Sambo is 
taught that nobody but a white man can fulfil with credit ! 
Baltimore furnishes the world with one more splendid 
example of the beauties of the " Municipal system." She 
is overrun by organized bands of ruffians and convicts of 
the worst kind ; her elections are conducted under their 
auspices ; her citizens hold their lives and property at 
their mercy ; her streets are rendered dangerous night and 
day by their brawls ; but to compensate her for these evils, 
for the conversion of society itself into a curse and a peril, 
she has her Municipal system intact, and her Mayor and 
Common Council appoint the police force. 



THE END, 



APE. 15. i 861. 



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